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DSS Outfit

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early0electric:
Bear with me here as there is a lot of info to pass along. Outside of my unboxed QUAKER 728 outfit I have a boxed Butler Brothers early O gauge outfit. It is Lionel Outfit 1520, similar to Lionel Outfit 162 minus 2 pieces of straight track.  Outfit 162 was last cataloged in 1923 as were the 601 Pullman and 602 baggage. Outfit 1520 was cataloged in a Butler Brothers catalog of Nov 1926. The Butler Bothers number was 1F3378 as shown in the catalog cut and on the Outfit box. Also stamped on the box is 2F3390, apparently another Butler Brothers number which I have been so far unable to locate. The contents overflow the original box. I have tried to make everything fit but but the room is just not there. Were parts of this packaged separate or did the box lid not completely close?? Who knows? Nobody alive now that would have that info. The outfit is in excellent condition, complete with instructions, bulb holder, interior boxes and track. Pasted inside the lid are labels from the manufacturer (not Lionel) in regards to the labels on the box. No company is identified but definitely some supplier to either Butler or Lionel. The instructions date to 1925. the box info dates to 1925-26. So it seems Lionel still had an inventory of 601's and 602's 3 years after they stopped cataloging these items!
                  

Terry:
That's a cool set. That's another one of those oddities from the 1925/26 period. Interesting that the colors are listed in the ad. Is that normal for the period?

Everything should go in the box and it should close firmly. Especially if it's a mail order set. When a train comes in more than one box it has "Include #908 with this set" or "This is box 1 of 2 make sure your customer gets box 2" on the label so the buyer isn't shorted.

Are the boxes for the loco and cars the same? Maybe a collector replaced one with a larger version?

I notice it doesn't come with a 068 warning sign. When did the sets start getting them?

One note about the Lionel warehouse. If you look at the Model Builder Magazines from the late 1930s Lionel was using 4U and 9U locos for contest prizes 8-10 years after they were last cataloged.

early0electric:
I followed up with the seller when I purchased it. It was brought in for consignment in Colorado to the resale shop by the original owners wife, so this had never been in the hands of any collector before me as it was sold by the consignment shop. Everything would fit if the boxes would lay flat but it would be a squish fit.

 

I don't know if the interior boxes grew or the Outfit box shrank over the years. Because the description didn't mention a rheostat or a O68 warning signal I surmise that they weren't included. From what I know, warning signals were included starting in 1926. But then again, this is a DSS, so who knows? There is definitely no room for one in this outfit.

Terry:
Do you know if they put the 068 signs in setboxes wrapped in paper, or where they always boxed? As common as they are, there should be more 068 boxes. I've seen pristine boxed sets with the sign loose so maybe they did.

Also years ago I had a 253 in dark green with orange windows and die cast lights in a boxed set with regular dark green 610/610/612 cars. At the time I figured they made up the dark green shells with inserts for peacock locos just to get rid of the left over early cars. Then later when they ran out of dark green cars, they buried the dark green locos with orange windows in some of the sets with peacock 607/608 cars. One of those sets is shown in the recent greenberg on page 248.

The 253 set and your set both seem to say they did have stuff in the warehouse.

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