Antique Lionel Trains – Hey Hey, My My – A Lionel Train Will Never Die

A quick look at eBay, or other online auction site shows there's interest in the

collection of Lionel and other antique trains from the first half of the Twentieth century. In the USA, iconic 20th Century brands like Lionel and American Flyer, along with the less well known Ives and Boucher are the most sought-after. In Europe, it's Bing and Marklin, while Hornby's glorious O gauge tin-plate models from the 1930's through to the 1950s command high prices in the antique trains market. Reasons for train collectors chasing these relics shouldn't be any harder to figure than the reasons why folks collect any other antique items: craftsmanship, happy memories of simpler times past, or as an inflation-proof investment. We all know that antique-anything prices just keep moving one way, don't they?

For starters, newcomers to this area of collecting should be aware that there are two kinds of "old model train sets" out there. There's the real deal and there are the brand new reproductions of antique Lionel trains that are made by a number of specialist companies. Let's briefly consider this second kind of "antique" first. Locomotives and rolling stock are usually made to order, in limited quantities and being exact replicas of the originals, they're not cheap. Maybe it's best to put these in the same mental briefcase as the handmade brass beauties we all lust over in the more conventional model railroad world. Will they retain the value of their purchase price? Hard to say. We just have to take a "wait and see" approach.

My My, Hey Hey.How Much Do I Have To Pay?

So what about the real antiques? They're probably a surer bet. Interestingly, genuine antique Lionel train items aren't always stratospherically expensive. A lot depends on the comparative rarity of the item and also the condition. While a mint-condition example preferably in its original box is always going to command more than a less pristine one. So rarity, condition and completeness are the three main parameters that govern price. At the time of writing this, a quick glance on eBay revealed cars from the 20s and 30s going for between $20-$50 per item. There was also a full boxed set from the 1920s, consisting of loco, three cars and track with an asking price of $1999.

The King is gone, but he's not forgotten. . .

Tin-plate Lionel trains, once the uncontested rulers of miniature steel rails in the USA, ceased production in 1969. These oldies, whether the reproductions or the genuinely old, can never compete in detail or performance with what I call the Neil Young-era Lionel products - the super-detailed, and pretty expensive - O gauge trains sold since the reorganization, and recapitalization of the company as Lionel LLC. But that's not what it's all about, is it? Like any other collectibles in the antique world, antique Lionel trains are about warm and fuzzy memories, nostalgia for times gone and a genuine affection for the look and feel of tin-plate trains: the stock and trade of model railroads before the era of super detail, ushered in by HO gauge in the 1960s.

Antique Lionel Trains Hey Hey, My My A Lionel Train Will Never Die

By: Liam

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