TRAINS ARE MADE FOR RUNNING.

Facebook keep offering me unsolicited Advice For Elderly Persons including "13 Things Model Train Dealers Quietly Notice About Collections Owned by Someone Over 70 in the First 5 Minutes."

The article is about people who treat trains as investments, and they behave like speculators in matchbooks and sports cards.  The first item on the list seems sensible.  "Whether the Original Boxes Are Still There."  Not because those boxes are useful for protecting the rolling stock in the event of a move and when the owner crosses the final summit.

The very first thing a dealer scans for isn’t the trains themselves. It’s the cardboard sitting next to them.

Original packaging protects against dust, moisture, and warping, and its presence signals a collector who understood what they had. A box in solid shape quietly raises the offer before a single piece even changes hands.

There's even a category called "new in box" referring to rolling stock that has not been taken out of the box.

I suppose we could have figured the article was going to be crazy based on one of the images of the appraiser at work.

Gemini image retrieved from Climate Cosmos.

If you know, you know.

Let the record show that if it's property of Cold Spring Shops, it's going to run.

The "new in box" fetish comes with a Rich Guy Version.  "The Presence of Brass Locomotives."  To the train curator, "Brass trains are valued for their scale detail and craftsmanship, not for whether they run. A single foam-lined box holding a brass import can flip a dealer’s entire assessment of the room."  "Curating," in this setting, is a highfalutin' way of saying "hoarding."  As I concluded that post, "The hardest-core Lionel curator is cringing at that box being opened!"  If it's brass, it might be painted, and if it runs, it's going to be pulling trains, painted or not.

And yes, I drive the hoarders investors collectors nuts violating "Signs of Repainting or Modification."

Let the appraiser cringe.

The power in the video began as a Lionel "Train Master."  A previous owner converted it to two-rail operation, fitting it with a Central Locomotive Works drive and an ingenious reuse of the Lionel side frames, and an open-frame permanent magnet motor.

The motor mount is exactly the right size for a can motor taken out of an Atlas F unit from the 1970s, and there's plenty of space for a Ring Engineering onboard power module and the battery, and a speaker for sound.  Sounds and lights are yet to be installed.  The drive train is in good order.

And with secondary cataract repair taken care of, and sunset coming earlier, more workbench modifications will soon be revealed.

As far as those family heirlooms, they often feature in the Festive Season video, but "The Condition of the Pre-War Pieces" varies from Frequently Run to Rewired to Rebuilt After Trip to Floor, and their formations have been strengthened with bargain price acquisitions at swap meets.

Whether, dear reader, you consider yourself collector, operator, or builder of Christmas displays, the final point in the essay is most important.  "Whether the Collection Was Documented for the Estate."  That's useful for the people helping out when the owner has crossed the final summit.  It's also worth doing to get insurance coverage against fire and theft.  Otherwise the models are aggregated in against whatever general loss coverage is in your policy.  Document, submit conservative purchase and upgrade values, and buy the special property rider.  That is all.