Anyone knowledgeable about HO Trains or Antique Railroad Lanterns?

**Advocate** · December 24th, 2008, 12:53 AM

my grandfather passed about a year ago and my family has reached the last large task of appraising and selling his HO model train collection (i'm guessing on the order of 400+ trains in boxes) and Antique railroad lanterns (maybe 40 or so)

they meant a lot to him and while we'd love to keep them, we simply can't.... however finding information is hard (especially about the lanterns, as some a very old and in amazing shape)

anyone into these hobbies and know their stuff or have a contact?

thanks for reading guys and gals!

-advocate

**PA Rifleman** · December 24th, 2008, 02:20 AM

Since you're thinking about liquidating, try searching for similar items on ebay. Despite ebay's enmity toward guns, no other online auction service has the audience. As I type this there's about 18 thousand HO scale items on ebay right now (search results).

With the trains, try to be as specific as possible with details, including the manufacturer (Marx, Athearn, Walther, etc). You might have some real gems given how long your grandfather was active. Expect locomotives to sell for more than rolling stock (cars), again watching out for real gems in his collection. Generally (but not always) metal locomotives will have more collector interest and command a premium, especially if it's fairly detailed.

As far as the lanterns, again check on the internet or see what's happening on ebay (RR lanterns on ebay).

Good luck, I fell into some wonderful acquisitions from a local HO rail enthusiast in the 1980s. No doubt your grandfather had some nice specimens too.

**gnbrotz** · December 24th, 2008, 10:19 PM

I talked to a railfan at work today. He said that a large percentage of lanterns have a railroad name around the bottom of the metal housing. The key to their value is having the original globe (glass), because the original globes had the name embossed in the glass as well.

He also mentioned to top appraisers, and was going to e-mail their names to me, but forgot to do that. I'm going to see if Google can help me track them down. Depending on what you have, there is a chance that they may be interested themselves, if not, he said that ebay is definitely the way to go.

**gnbrotz** · December 24th, 2008, 10:35 PM

Yay! Google helped.

Try contacting

TOMMY GILBERT'S HOBBY SHOP
346 East Water Street
Gettysburg, PA 17325
Phone: (717) 337-1992
FAX: (717) 337-0966
e-mail: sales@gilbertshobbies.com

My friend said that Tommy (like any good businessman) likes to buy low and sell high, but he definitely knows his stuff. He said that if the collection contains a lot of brass, Tommy would probably refer you on to Howard Zane. I'm told his appraisal services aren't cheap, but again, he's a leading authority, and if you have brass, he's the guy you want. Depending on what you have he may be interested in buying the collection himself.

Howard Zane
5236 Thunder Hill Road
Columbia, MD 21045
410-730-1036
EMail: hzane1@comcast.net

**Advocate** · December 25th, 2008, 03:34 AM

WOW
thanks a million guys!
that really helps!

**justsayno** · December 25th, 2008, 06:34 AM

Ditto, Ebay will get you in the zone on pricing, also the train shows are a great place to spend the day at. Another place was mitchels in North Del, 1 mile from pa, they had a large ho selection, now closed, but the guys who used to run the train part opened up just right up the road. I'm sure there are forums like these for train entusiest, do some google searching. Good luck. I have the imfomus milk unloader car in ho.. The action cars are sometimes worth more than the locos...

**Advocate** · December 25th, 2008, 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by justsayno

Ditto, Ebay will get you in the zone on pricing, also the train shows are a great place to spend the day at. Another place was mitchels in North Del, 1 mile from pa, they had a large ho selection, now closed, but the guys who used to run the train part opened up just right up the road. I'm sure there are forums like these for train entusiest, do some google searching. Good luck. I have the imfomus milk unloader car in ho.. The action cars are sometimes worth more than the locos...

the HO has worked out pretty well on ebay... but the railroad lanterns have such a broad value base, i can find SEMI similar items in SOME cases, but never a an exact and normally not even a close match...

i've looked for railroad boards but most have "no appraisal policies" (apparently there are a lot of fake lanterns out there)

...i think i'll go with gnbrotz's suggestions and see where it leads me.

thanks again!