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 Posted - May 04 2018 : 10:32:24 PM
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No, seriously! LOL!  My train shop's young store manager asked me to work early Friday morning for him while he was at school taking a test. After opening up, and hanging out with another guy there, our American Flyer repair guy walks in, and calls to me Hey, Jerry, you might be interested in this. He had a couple of boxes of HO trains, turns out an elderly couple were going to throw it away, a friend of theirs knew George, so took it, and George, who isn't into HO, brought it into the shop to see if anyone was interested.
So, yeah, we started pulling stuff out. The big box was a literal TIME CAPSULE of 1950's model railroading - Varney, John English, Tenshodo, AC Giblert, some round containers with coal, ballast cement, orange ground cover, among other details. An AC Gilbert box of various rolling stock. It was amazing to see all this vintage stuff that was apparently going to go to waste before being rescued. Whew!  Close call! I ended up making a deal with him for the entire lot ( except for some model train oil ). Of particular interest to me were the engines - A Tenshodo brass 0-8-0 , a Varney F7, Varney switcher , John English 4-6-2 Pacific, among them. some kit-built HO cars, some all metal ones, probably Varney, probably some AC Gilbert too.
If I hadn't of gone into the train shop to work for a few horus, I'd have probably missed this deal.  NOT that I need any more trains, I have plenty, but sometimes you just can't pass up a good deal. Since he's into S gauge Flyer, he had no interest in the HO offerings. I think we both came away rather happy with the outcome. He got free money, and I got some very old trains for a reasonable price, I think. I'd say the Tenshodo brass steamer was probably worth the purchase almost by itself. Or not. But at any rate, it's mine. :) Here's a few pics of some of what I got today :
Above, Tenshodo 0-8-0
Above, a John English Pacific. I even have the old box for it!
Above, a Varney kit F7, put together, not running right now.
Above, a box of rolling stock, no names on them. Maybe Varney and Gilbert both?
Above, a VERY old hobby book, has some interesting lineart drawings of various rolling stock reporting marks, different hobby sources from the era. Pretty cool book!
Well, this isn't all of it, but I'll post more later. Can't believe I got a brass Tenshodo steam engine. 
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - May 05 2018 : 06:19:38 AM
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Nice finds there, and congratulations!!!
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." - Matthew 5:16
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Posted - May 05 2018 : 07:36:38 AM
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| Whoee! I want to see the orange ground cover. What the heck?
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Posted - May 05 2018 : 09:59:30 AM
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It's amazing what some people would throw away!  Nice score! Have you taken a closer look at that Varney F3? From the pictures, it appears to be sitting on a Lindsay drive.
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Posted - May 05 2018 : 1:16:46 PM
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I recently acquired a Lionel HO Milwaukee for 20 bucks
Goes with the Neal Young One (NO NOT the 1200.00 dollar one there was A cheaper one)
Where is your shop ? They Hiring?
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Posted - May 06 2018 : 9:19:06 PM
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| Nice pickup!
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Posted - May 07 2018 : 4:58:23 PM
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quote:
Above, a box of rolling stock, no names on them. Maybe Varney and Gilbert both?
Originally posted by AMC_Gremlin_GTÂ -Â May 04 2018Â :Â 10:32:24 PM
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Okay, here goes.
Top: Ulrich 50' Composite "war emergency" gondola, undec. A very nice kit. You are missing (as the large majority surviving examples of this kit are) the stamped ends.
Left top: MDC (Roundhouse) 40' boxcar, PRR. These all-metal cars are nice, but required painting everything but the sides, and are extremely difficult to add kadee couplers to.
Left bottom: Railmaster twin covered hopper, National Plate Glass. This car was offered in plastic by Varney, but that doesn't look nearly shiny enough to be it... the sides on that car appear to match Railmaster twin hopper sides, so... I can only assume that what you have there is the first example I have ever encountered of a Railmaster covered hopper kit, catalogued once in 1950 in just this one roadname and undecorated. All Railmaster kits are rather uncommon, and I've never seen one of these before!
Center: Comet Models 40' automobile boxcar, MKT. One of the more popular cardboard-side car kits of the early 50s, this was by far the best selling product from Comet, and is frequently mislabeled as a contemporary Varney product.
Center right: unknown 40' card-side reefer, GN-WFE. Unless you can show us the top and bottom of the car, I can't tell who made this one. It's hand-decaled, so it might just be somebody's scratchbuilt project, since almost all reefer kits at the time came with pre-printed sides.
Far right: pretty sure that's the Athearn version of all-metal tank car kit, in lovely Mobilgas red. I have two of these, they're very nicely detailed kits and hold up quite favorably to modern models as long as the dome doesn't get zinc rot and shatter.
Bottom: 65' mill gon, D&RGW. This is either the Red Ball or the Railmaster version. I don't have any of either kit, and not for lack of trying, so without looking at the bottom I can't tell which it is. Another very uncommon find.
You lucked out, man! I'm hella jealous of that NPG car and the long gondola.
--CRC
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