Interesting Auction Items

[Terry]

My 350 watt photo bulbs show the remains of the Lake Shore. It's worn off lettering from being cleaned with some type of solvent.

It's like throwing out $35, but I don't buy lottery tickets so this is my gambling.

[Terry]

Here's an interesting loco:

 

Blue 248.


Here's the auction.

I bet that was repainted a long time ago. It's really interesting TO ME that the seller is quoting an article I wrote 23 years ago:

Lionel 248 locos

I'm famus!

[starfire700]

Color looks too blue to be Lionel peacock, or maybe just his lighting is off. It would look nice with matching 529, 530 pullmans.

[Terry]

Harris auctions has two really unusual cars coming up this month if they are real!

First is a green 6014 unlettered boxcar:

 

I think that's an MPC era shell so it might not be something special. Check the rows of rivets. There's a recent Airex car in the listing with the same rivet pattern.

Here's the auction:

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/120717802_lionel-postwar-8-eight-assorted-box-cars

Here's the gem:

 

If the brown Baby Ruth is real, it's a fantastic car. I had a brown plastic culvert gondola a few years ago that looked like that car.

Here's the auction:

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/120717800_lionel-postwar-eight-8-assorted-box-cars

I saw nothing else interesting on my weekly trip through the internet. It's been sparse out there.

[starfire700]

I have a tan 2454 Baby Ruth car. It was made by a guy in the Chicago area, chemically altered paint finish without affecting the lettering.
Not sure how to test for this, but something to consider. If the lot goes cheap, it doesn't matter.

[Terry]

I had a brown 6456 hopper that was cheically altered with the trucks still on. The maroon paint was fresh underneath the truck screws. Don't know what was used to change it as it came in  a box lot.

I also had a 6342 culvert gondola that was unpainted brown plastic. It was real.

The baby ruth car seems to be unpainted brown plastic. Collectors call these weird cars "Boy's Train Cars," but they are probably just samples or test shots.

[starfire700]

Yeah, that does look like a car for the Boy's Train. Makes me wonder about the name "Boy's Train".
Lionel called set 1587S the "Train set for Girls" in the 1957 catalog, sub-titled "in fashion-right colors".  Then they felt obligated to show a 2037 freight of regular-production cars on the same pages and titled it "for boys.....a man-sized freight set". Someone must have gotten fired for this blunder.
In 1958 it was titled "Lady Lionel"....still in fashion-right colors. By 1959 it disappeared and was replaced with the General and Military-Space trains.
I don't think Lionel ever called it "the Girl's Train" same with the "Boy's Train" that never made it past prototype status, just names coined by collectors.

[early0electric]

I found this. Not sure what they used for. Ends tomorrow.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115171169049?hash=item1ad0bc9319:g:-z8AAOSwwAthha6X

[Terry]

Mike - those might be from the Porter radios and record players made in the early 1960s.

[early0electric]

You're probably right.

[Brian Miller]

The brown 6014 arrived today.  It is right as rain.  Exactly as described in the TM book from the 80’s. Red mold painted brown with heat stamp lettering.   

[Terry]

Great. You've gotten some good stuff from that auction house.

[Terry]

Stout sold a gray 153 loco yesterday. Normally I see items on Stout a few weeks before the auction. Not so with the 153, I saw it last Friday and it sold 6 days later. Not to me so someone got a deal.

Here's the listing:

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/two-lionel-prewar-o-gauge-electric-locomotives-wi-9844a1c84c

Here's some interesting items coming up in an April 2nd Stout auction.

Cream 408E set.
 

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/lionel-std-ga-cream-paint-sample-pass-set-no-409e-3c64060a93

Crackle Black 400E
 

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/lionel-prewar-std-ga-scarce-desirable-400e-black--a3f402c8db

There's a bunch of other nice stuff, but no early Lionel.

Here's something interesting. . . Lionel 113 station.

 

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/lionel-prewar-std-ga-113-illuminated-terra-cotta--9a2437ebaa

Note the 113 station has lights beside the doors. I have a few 112 stations without lights, but not a 113. I guess my dad and I overlooked them. Maybe they are quite rare? I looked on eBay last month, and didn't see any selling in the past 90 days. Looking again tonight one sold for $577 in early March.

As the big collections are sold off we fight over the rarities, but they sell the common trains too. I wonder who is buying all the common trains? Thoughts?

[Terry]

Here's a lot with some madison Hardware wartime cars. One is a broken floodlight car. Those are harder to find.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403563313198

[starfire700]

A small time seller, interesting grouping considering that most of the other train items they have listed are track and switches.