Keeping it Together By Ken Foust

Whether you hunt for old toys in antique shops, yard sales, flea markets, or online, one thing is certain. If an item had multiple parts, there’s a good chance one or more will be missing. I’m not talking about a lost screw or a corroded rubber tire, although those situations are common enough. Noah’s Arks will be a few beasties short, and even the finest lead soldier may go AWOL; but the largest disappearing parts often involve toy trains.

Whether designed for a track or the floor, and regardless of how they’re powered, train sets can lose entire cars. Perhaps because of their small size, tenders seem to disappear first; especially if left in a dark stairwell, then stepped on by an unshod adult. In any case, much of the joy of collecting trains is in finding the correct car(s) to complete a set. But sometimes the most gratifying part is keeping a train set together the owner tries to sell by the piece thinking he’ll make more money. Truth be told; if selling train sets piece meal made sense, every auction house would do it.

Subscribe!