I just caught a news item that Neil Young (72 years old) is auctioning some/all of his Lionel collection. If you are looking for something for your museum, maybe you will find it there?

link to auction page

http://www.juliensauctions.com/auctions ... index.html

These are the times when I wish I was born rich, instead of handsome.

I wonder if he is hurting for money or just decided to downsize so he can move into a retirement condo?

Perhaps he thinks his Lionel trains are better to burn out than to fade away.

Actually, joking aside, he had a fire in a warehouse full of his memorabilia, gold records, etc. a few years back, caused by an old Lincoln that he had converted to battery power/ electric, maybe he decided not to chance it again.

For years, he attended, with his son, the various train shows in the Bay Area. Most of the show attendees had no clue in who he was.

I wonder if he is transitioning from 0 to G scales.

Heard a radio interview with him last week in which he discussed the auction. Said he was shrinking his collection of many things he has amassed over his career.

I believe he also said his son has grown up and they don't use them as much as they did in the past. He felt it time to let others enjoy the Lionel trains as much as they did.

I am not a Lionel guy but from my quick review of the auction items; there are some rare Lionel artifacts as well as some reasonably priced items.

For those who don't know, his son has cerebral palsy, and Neil has been devoted to giving both the boy and others who share the same experience, a better shot at life. Most of this collection will go to a hospital/care facility for C.P. victims.

I doubt Mr. Young is hurting for cash. I think he's trying to make certain his fortune is used the way he wants it to go prior to maturing on his will.

Looks to be very comfortable. His catalogue likely generates an extremely livable revenue stream. He is very smart to be liquidating parts of his collections in an orderly way while he still enjoys apparent good health.

https://www.celebritynetworth.com/riche ... net-worth/

Celebrity wealth is by no means guaranteed.

When collectors are serious and have the means, collections sometimes become so large that the owners have no real ability to relate and appreciate what they do have. coughirmcough You see that a lot on American Pickers where the collection vastly overwhelms even the pickers and it's obvious they lack the cash flow or the van space to take even 1/10 of the real cherries on offer. Also, as collections improve, it makes sense to cull the lesser. Let someone else have that "fair" piece to start their collection. On American Pickers you can certainly spot the collections where that hasn't been done, with plenty of former gold covered in cobwebs or sinking into the mud.

Anything in this collection--and there are apparently some "jewels" in here--will double in "value" just from the "bragging rights" of "once owned by Neil Young." There is nothing here for a serious railroad museum unless 1) Mr. Young graciously donates it and 2) it fits some interpretive mission of "the railroad in popular societal culture and childhood".

"Singer Neil Young's model trains fetch nearly $300,000 at auction":

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-peop ... SKBN1E40RD

Considering the guitars and the exceptional antique automobiles, I would have to say, I am underwhelmed by the results of the auction. I would have thought it would have brought in considerably more. He had some remarkable collectible Lionels too, including a number of test units and early production items. Recognizing the myth that people have about all Lionels being worth a million dollars, I still would have thought these would have garnered more. The FM Trainmasters alone were quite an amazing group.

It's been a few years since I read his autobiography, but I'm sure he said that he'd bought the Lionel business to stop it from going broke.

Note that the Lionel collection was for 200 or so items. All other items (car, guitars, etc) were reported separately in prices.