One pair N&W marker lamps, complete with script lettering for $25.00. Non-railroad related: complete inscribed 1st class sterling silver serving set from the RMS Aquatania and one 2nd class serving set from the SS United States all for $35.00 from a church bizarre, gotta keep the wife happy.

Forsyth63@yahoo.com

How about a Savannah Florida & Western journal brass kicked out of the ballast at the diamond in Plant City, FL in about 1988 while waiting for photo ops?



ssyfrett@bellsouth.net

David,

Wow, a silver set from the Aquatania, I'd hope your wife was happy. I found a brass FIRST CLASS ONLY cigar holder form the S.S. New Amsterdam for two bucks. And one of my friends ended up with a teak deck chair from the same liner for some insanely low price. Good stuff.

Thanks, Taylor

thrush@smt-net.com

> David,
Our everyday dishes are from the crews dinning room RMS Queen Mary. Still wish I had my 1940 presentation plate from the USS Colorado. It was enameled with a portrait of the ship upon a tropical background with the year of issue done in gold leaf. Fear, I lost this in one my moves, only similar one I know of is a surviving example from the Arizona.
> Wow, a silver set from the Aquatania, I'd
> hope your wife was happy. I found a brass
> FIRST CLASS ONLY cigar holder form the S.S.
> New Amsterdam for two bucks. And one of my
> friends ended up with a teak deck chair from
> the same liner for some insanely low price.
> Good stuff.

> Thanks, Taylor


Forsyth63@yahoo.com

Not a garage sale, but when we dismantled the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway back in 1985 we found in a dusty corner of the shop a brand new steam locomotive smokestack along with a few other new parts and some wood patterns. The stack, somewhat modified, is now on TVRM's no. 610.

I also remember uncovering various "goodies" at Streigel Supply in Baltimore some years ago, including a crate full of brand new trainmen's kerosene lanterns - military surplus.

Probably the best bargain was back in the mid-1960's when I was a child and my father bought me a kerosene switch lantern at the B&O Museum - if I remember correctly, the railroad was getting rid of them at the time and was selling them in the gift shop for a few bucks each.

Alan Maples

AMaples@aol.com

Well, if we are going away from garage sales, I did get a bargain (believe it or not) from an antique store in suburban Roswell, GA, a few years back. A matched set of marker lights spray painted gold and for sale for $35 as "Old Ships Lanterns". $5 in Yuba City, CA, got me a circa 1870 engraving from Horseshoe Curve showing some trains rounding the curve from the POV of the cab of a train ahead.

dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

About 1963 or 1964, the Reading Co. was disposing of stuff from their storehouse in Reading. Brand new long-spout oil cans $5, brand new kerosene lanterns $10, single-chamber whistles $25, chime whistles $125. And at about the same time, the PRR sold builder's plates from scrapped steam locos to employees through the employee magazine for $5.

K4s1361@hotmail.com

While visiting my uncle as a teenager I found the Nicholson Thermic Syphons plate from WM 772 hanging on a nail on his downstairs porch right where he had hung it after removing it from the engine about twenty years before. It is still my most treasured possession. Over the years I have bought quite a few small locomotive parts in danger of being lost at bargin prices. Most have been donated to museums or sold at discount to shortlines. I also spent quite a few evenings behind the Bemis sawmill in Robbinsville, NC finding and loading most of the parts needed to put the 1926 back together. They had just thrown them on a back lot next to the creek. Eventually the parts either went to PA with the 1926 or are on the 1925 at Spencer.

John

jhbohon@yahoo.com

Got a couple:

One was a marked PM Carferry steak plate and gravy boat, both $10, at an antigue store in lexington, Michigan. I haven't been able to get another p[iece since, as most ANYTHING in this pattern goes for bettter than $150 now...

Another good one was a Detroit, Bay City & Western key AND lock at a garage sale here in Port Huron. Since this railroad was only in existence for about 10-15 years, not bad, a really rare.

Best though was finally getting a long-sought after scissors phone at a flea market in Norwalk, Ohio. It was marked from the depot it came from (Rising Sun, Ohio) and included the last train log book along with it for $45. That will go in my recreated ticket office someday ;-)

TJG

tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

I still have the letter and list of builder's plates from the Great Northern Railway in 1963. Any 9-1/4" Baldwin steam plate was $5.00 plus railway express shiping. My 16 year old son cannot understand why I did not buy all of them. I told him I was in junior high school and was only working part time jobs. It took me several months to get $30 to buy six plates and my parents would pay the railway express shipping. Times have changed!!! - but it was a lot of fun writing to all of the railroads and I did get a few items that are still in my collection today.



steamfan@crusoe.net

By far the best deal I have managed to get (where I actually had to pay for it) was a book I bought on eBay back a couple of years ago. I was the only bidder on it and got it for about $35. The volume was "Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway: Legal History of Entire System" written by J.D.B. DeBow, counsel for the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway until December 1913. The book, published in 1900 totals 985 pages and is a complete, detailed legal history of the railroad from its founding up to the time of the publishing.

What was even better is that in subsequent communication and conversations, other deals ensued once the seller realized that I was a very serious historical collector focusing on the railroad that his uncle had studied and collected items from (the Western and Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia). He mentioned that he had inherited his uncle's railroad collection and had the items stored but needed to sell off some items that he really didn't have space for anymore.

Basically the deal was that as he went through the collection, he'd contact me when he came across a railroad related piece and give me first refusal before listing it for auction. Prices were somewhat negotiable since some of the items were so rare that they hardly come up in sales or auctions. The other reason he later told me that he was agreeable to selling the items was that he was, in fact, afraid that the items would be sold in an estate or garage sale if they were not sold or donated before his death. Some of the collection included rare paper items such as United States Military Railroad pass dated March, 1865, a Western and Atlantic Railroad pass from 1889, etc. Other items included an acid etched window with the Western and Atlantic Railroad monogram from a passenger coach, two decorative cast iron corner pieces from the same coach as the window, a photograph of the coach (given to authenicate the cast iron pieces), etc. All of that led to a trip to the midwest to pick up the items as some of the items (the window and two replicas of same) were too fragile to ship and others (four foot section of pre-Civil War iron U-rail from the W&A) were too heavy to ship economically.

As for freebies, the best deal I have gotten was from a friend locally. He had a bunch of Southern Railway Employee Timetables that he no longer had space for and knew that I was interested in that type of stuff. Since I had proper storage space for them, he gave them to me. The oldest ones date from 1911 and the newest from the mid 1920s. One issued in 1919 is United States Railway Administration issue. They have been a treasure trove of information and a great addition to the collection.

awalker2002@comcast.net

As late as 1964, the New York Central was privately selling steam locomotive bells from a storeroom in Collinwood. I was alerted to this by a neighbor who was a NYC Purchasing Agent. It seemed Al Perlman had the bells saved for his discretionary donations to churches, etc., and it was time to clear out the remainder. For $50 they shipped a bell to Harmon for me to pick up in mom's '63 Buick convertible! I was amazed to discover this bell (it was their pick) was consistent with the bells used on the Buchanan-designed 4-4-0's (and others, of course) that once operated on the much-beloved Putnam Division.

r-paul@msn.com

When I was in jr. high school, I contacted the CB&Q asking about brakemen's lanterns. They offered me two for $1 each postage paid. I scraped up the money and bought one Adlake Reliable marked CB&Q and another marked C&S.



gbrewer@yahoo.com

I have a large "Southern Serves The South" sign, framed, under glass that probably adorned a Southern depot or office- $15 at a flea market shop. One of those N&W "W" signs (for grade crossings)-it weighs a ton - got it for free. Some 1940's-50's issues of Trains Magazine(husband died,wife sold it all) , some HO scale model stuff cheap...
For deal of the century I nominate the folks who bought the Leadville to Climax,CO branch from Burlington Northern a few years ago. They got the track, a locomotive, and a few pieces of rolling stock. If memory serves me correctly, the price was $100.
mw


p_michael_warren@yahoo.com

Glen, you should have asked them about other hardware!! I still have a copy of the letter from the CB&Q in either in 1964 or 1965. They offered me a number plate from a 4900 series 2-8-2 for $5.00 and a chime whistle for $15. I still have both of them as my parents loaned me the money to purchase them. Some roads were good to me like the GN, Rock Island, CB&Q, Erie-Lackawanna and Monon. Most roads just sent back a no reply, but we used to get lucky once in a while. I still have the letterheads from all of those fallen flag roads and it is a collection in itself. This has been a great thread that someone started!!



steamfan@crusoe.net