What Trains do you have you Consider Rare

MTH Bonomo banana car 14

All CWI cars less than 50 of each

MTH 1995 Christmas maybe 100?

rat

re thinking this I am pretty confident that the tinplate freedomland , palisades and Christmas trolley would be in the 50 plus or minus range

 

rat

Not too many, but here's what I can think of offhand.

 

Standard Gauge McKeen Windsplitter

3rd Rail AC-4 Cab Forward with grey boiler

Lionel Milwaukee Road log car made for LOTS in 1988. 500 were made; I have at least 10 to make a logging train with my K-Line Shay (redecorated as Milwaukee Road). 

 

Rare, meaning very few made or does hard to find qualify? I have the Norfolk Southern Business Train, which I think is pretty hard to find but I'm sure how many were made so i don't know if it is considered rare. I fell in love with the colors and the details and it is one of my favorites that I would never sell.

One of six hand built prototype Legacy NYC F7 ABA sets.

They were only available to six members of the Legacy designers group.

There were six NYC and six WP sets. They were basically on hand modified F3 frames with the first Legacy electronics packages.

My 3rd-Rail three rail Jawn Henry.  They made a total of 120 units breaking down as I recall 70-three rail and 50-two rail.

 

Ron

I have a Pride lines Green Diamond beautiful articulated set.  Also several Dorfan #51 electrics and several passenger cars.  Most prized of my Dorfan collection is two sets #256  which consist of a # 54 box cab electric   #496 Seattle and Boston pullmans and   #497 observation called Silver-Blue Arrow. Also #55 steam loco w/#498 Atlanta and Boston  and a #499 observation . Up until about a week ago that was it and then I came upon a #3920 wide gauge (std. gauge) loco. and 3 passenger cars, #890 Chicago, #990 Washington, #995 American Railway express, #996 observation and #804 tank car, #805 gondola, along with a lot of Dorfan straight and curved track,which in itself may be rare. 

I have an MTH Steelers RTR set from the 2000s. In and of itself it is not that rare, but the engine was autographed at some point by Dan Rooney of the Steelers. I also have the MTH Railking SD70ACe Norfolk Southern Heritage Unit, which, if not rare, is unique in that is a manufacturing blunder by MTH. I also have on order an MTH L1s Montour Railroad Mikado made exclusively for a local LHS, uncataloged. Our local train club also has two Montour SW9s, also uncataloged, shown on my home layout.

Probably my Lionel original Jersey Central Train Master in mint condition.

My yellow cover, red painted tray 397 with #70 yard light from 1948. Found at an antiques mart for $18.00 because it was 'broken" i.e. missing the belt and shield.

Mine are old and hard to find at least here in the states. I have two late 20's Exley LMS passenger cars with full interiors and a Bing For Basset Lowke operating postal car in the same Livery. It is fun to have some items not everyone has to fill in your collection. It is nice to have something to talk about when you have guests.

Like most 3rd Rail this Burlington S4 couldn't have been high production.  It's also the largest scale loco I own.

 

 

Bruce

My 250 watt ZW that I have never seen, still sealed in the original box, no this isn't it.

Some of the Atlas special runs of rolling stock took me several years to find. I consider those rare.

-Greg

MTH:

Every one of my scratch built cars are 1 of a kind.

I'd have to say the only rare piece I have is my Senco Sound Tender.

My MTH NS Business train.  Since this photo was taken, purchased the other B unit now all I need is the Pennsylvania and Alabama cars then it will be complete all 14 cars.

Marx #53941 Pennsylvania stock car.  Before the internet, this car, if not rare, was

very hard to find...but after the 'Bay, these were offered on there fairly frequently, but not inexpensively.

Another car I think rare is a convention car, a Crystal River Marble flat car with a

real Colorado marble load on it, that was offered by TTOS.  They sent me two by

mistake, and I returned one, which I wonder if that was not a mistake, and I should

have sent the money and kept the second car.

Pre-war French Hornby, hand painted folk art.  Not valuable, but I love imaging the little boy in pre-war Paris painting this engine to match  a real carriage that he saw in the neighborhood.

 

Bill

 

None.

My rarest is a Lionel #508 and #509 mountain display with a sky background.  I believe that this was part of a 3-part display catalogued in the late 1920s.  I have only seen two others. I bought it when I was a teenager from a kindly dealer.

 

My 3rd Rail Challengers:

 

 

 

The K-Line 21" UP passenger cars-all of them.  Here's my favorite, NIB.

 

 

 

 Finally, the GM ToT, in the UP service yellow.  20 sets make it special to me...

 

Great thread, enjoyed reading the responses.

How do you plug it in and connect it to the track?????

 

As for rare, I'd have to say my two Natty Boh cars... 

 

 Gilly

The "It's a Wonderful Life" Lionel RTR set made for Land's End a few years ago.  I know it's not worth anything, but I like it because I never see mention of it anywhere.  Never see it on eBay, etc.  I know there were only 1000 made.

A 1950's wireless teather

My American Flyer Green Diamond without the lower couplers (no holes cut into the body or any of the coupling equipment) and silver grill paint. I still can't find signs of modification either.

 

After that, it's my Ives 1708 Cattle car. I spent 4 years searching for one at a price I could agree to.

My only other "rare" item was a #5 test station. I sold it when I started selling my older Lionel. Still at it. Never knew I had so much stuff. Don

It is not rare, but the most valuable locomotive that I own.

 

 

The locomotive and set that I received for Christmas in 1954 when I was 8.

 

 

 

 

 

Scott Smith

Lionel Ambassador cars

 

The Milwaukee Road S-3 pilot I have in my arms in my avatar picture. Supposedly it is 1 of 50.

Things I consider pretty tough to locate in O gauge in my possession:

• 2 pair Deses made in Mexico diecast F units in N de M green and orange paint
• AMT B&O F unit
• AMT Silver Streak F unit
• KMT/Kusan Tennessee production Rutland, B&M, red M&StL, WP, Pennsy Don't Stand Me Still, brown NYC and B&O boxcars (still looking for the Missouri Pacific and NH black/orange checkerboard cars)
• KMT/Kusan C&NW 3 car passenger set with pair of F units 
• Factory drawing of proposed AMT scale sized O gauge PA diesel
• Factory artwork for AMT Pennsylvania Railroad passenger car nameplates and number boards

Me too!

 

I was a first generation MTH dealer back in New Orleans area and had one of these as well.  Should have hung onto it.  Also had the R.O.W. brass D&H Alco PA set of which only 50 were made for many years and a LOTS Michigan Central boxcar (their 2nd year convention car) which was very low production.

Currently we have this 'rare' one-of-a-kind Lionel Tuxedo Southern E6 that I custom painted several years ago. 

 

hello Mr. Smith.............

 

Is that blue engine with the red stripe a Russian GG1 ?

 

Tiffany

A.F. Type XIII - No. 9 (ca. 1922)

Walker-Fenn Controlled Clockwork Locomotive - it used a Marklin clockwork motor, modified w/ the addition of an adjustable speed gramophone style governor per their 1928 patent, for sale in England.

I always admired this war time photo of this Santa Fe E6 heading the Super Chief at Albuquerque in 1943.  Note the headlight shroud. 

  

I asked Key Model Imports if they could produce a Santa Fe E6 with a headlight shroud like the one above but with the number 13.  I found a photo verifying that #13 had a shroud during WWII.

 

Key was able to grant my request and made Santa Fe E6 #13 with a wartime shroud.  Mine was the only one made like this.  I should take a better picture of it.

  

BTW  I'm sure there are a lot of modelers that think, why ruin a perfectly good E6.