Selling Wide Gauge Flyer and Hesitation...Help

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Am I wrong to consider what my son likes? After all, this hobby means more to me if my son is on-board, too.

I believe this is the answer to all your questions.

Robert

I would keep it. If your son likes it that could be a lasting memory for a life time. I just bought a AF standard gauge Hameltonian electric with the ringing bell and am restoring it now. First time I saw one run I had to have it!
I think your son will feel the same way!

I would keep them for him, my grandfather gave his whole standard gauge collection from childhood to his brother before I was born. He said no one wanted them and if he only knew I was comeing along down the pyke they would have been mine. 400E , 381, a few 38's , state cars sets, work train with crain sets and a bunch of accessories. He told stories of them until he passed and I am now trying to recreate his sets slowly in his honor.

Keep them and promiss them to him he will love you all the more for it.


Glenn

Vote for keep it.

Toys are cheap. Memories are priceless.

I've also been doing a lot of thinking along similar lines lately - I have twins that are four years and a few months old. I think you hit the nail on the head right here...

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Originally posted by Ironhorse:
However, he never engaged his imagination with those as he did that Flyer observation.

There's something about size and colors of Standard Gauge tinplate that does exactly this, with grown-ups as well as kids. And I'm sure you've seen, as we have, that toys for kids this age are all about imagination. The *less* the toys do, the more use our kids get out of them. Over the last year and a half, there are basically only six toys in our house that have gotten 99% of the play time - a set of wooden building blocks, a wooden brio train set, a giant plastic Schleich castle (with knights, princess, etc.), my daughter's Calico Critters "bunny house", a huge bin of Legos plus a couple sets, and paper and crayons. All the action figures, race cars, talking dolls, and anything that uses batteries get played with for a week or two before being left behind. We sporadically pack that stuff up and ship it off to Goodwill, and the kids never miss it.

So I've also been thinking about the very same issues with regards to trains. I bought us a modern LCT passenger set to run around the Christmas tree, and the kids thought that was pretty awesome. But they're still just a bit too young to operate the train without supervision and I don't want them scratching up a new set anyway (or worse, plugging in the tender plug upside down and burning out the boards). So for Christmas next year, they'll be receiving their own train - a vintage 390E and some freight cars that I'll be busy restoring and repainting over the next year. They can keep that out all year and tote their bunnies and knights around in the gondolas and flatcars all they want. If they decide a few years from now that they want their trains to do more, then maybe we can move into postwar O with all the operating cars and accessories that come with it. But at this point, I'd rather let them fill in the details with their imagination. The only accommodation to "doing stuff" that I'll be making is installing a whistling unit in the 390's tender, as the whistle is the one feature of our LCT set that they absolutely love the most.

So I'd join the others and say keep the wide gauge. There's no substitute for toys that encourage imagination at that age.

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Anyone have experience refitting the big PW Lionel accessories to work with Standard Gauge? Boy, if I could do that I'd drop the PW in a second.

Here is what I did with a Lionel log elevator. I made this car from a 500 series gondola I picked up on E-Bay cheap. Fun project and it works great with this accessory.

Keep It!!!

In 1930 my grandfather got a President's Special for Christmas and it started it all. Here i am 3 generations later!!!

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Posted January 03, 2012 10:53 AM Hide Post
I would keep it. If your son likes it that could be a lasting memory for a life time. I just bought a AF standard gauge Hameltonian electric with the ringing bell and am restoring it now. First time I saw one run I had to have it!
I think your son will feel the same way! Smile

Please tell me this doesnt involve re painting???

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Please tell me this doesnt involve re Frown painting???

My lips are sealed.

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Ughhhhh, i'm going to go eat some snow

OK but remember...Stay away from the yellow snow! Don't worry;She'll be shiny and beautiful again. I'll post some pics when I have it complete.

Yellow snow is bad for the digestive tract.

Well, I learned this from an old timer that got me started, and I strayed a few times, and always regretted it.

He told me that the money you either spend on a purchase or get from a sale is generally always replaceable at some point, and really never missed a few months after the fact. A train that you are either hesitant to sell or hesitant to buy may never come around again.

Take that for what it's worth, but if you're building memories with the trains, selling those memories is an unrecoverable loss. I have the cheap scout set my grandfather bought me in 1965, and I'd never get rid of it. It's probably the least valuable part of my collection but the most important.

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Please tell me this doesnt involve re Frown painting???

One of my most prized possessions is a repainted Flyer "Pocahontas" set with the bell ringing Shasta locomotive. The paint job was very nicely done and, being pre-war Flyer, it runs like a watch.

My father purchased it for me a few years before his death, so it is very special.

Repainting a rat and one that does not need it are different. I have no issue with restored pieces if they needed it!

Poke's are gorgeous trains and the colors are unique. Really great proportions on the loco too!

Unless I needed to money to buy food or shelter, under no circumstances would I sell a train that my wife or kids liked.