Need help with identifying...

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Schleprok

New Member
Hello all... sorry to be a bit of a pain with my first post. I'm trying to find any information I can on these pieces:

Pennsylvania E8/9 (I think) 5706 and 5802
2783Pennsy-e78-med.JPG


Passenger cars
2783Pennsy-psgr-med.jpg


Is this a "set" or were these sold as "seperates" ??

I do know they are all made by Kato... any information would be of great help...


Thank you...
 
The cars are either a set or from sets,I'm not sure if they were sold as singles.The E 8/9s I believe were not sold in sets,but if I am wrong I will be corrected.:D

[ EDIT} I think I forgot my manners (probly left them in my other pants) Welcome to the forum nice bunch of people here.
 
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Welcome aboard. I assume these are N scale. Kato sold both the engines and passenger cars in sets and individually. I suspect that, given the lack of observation car, the passenger cars were probably bought individually. The E units may have been sold as a pair or they were bought individually with two different road numbers, a common option today. Is there some reason why knowing how these were sold is important to you?
 


Thank you for the welcoming..

Well, I'm trying to put some kind of fair value on them... I'm considering selling... The engines are both in good working order. The cars, although I would not call them "mint" condition, are in very good condition... considering the were purchased sometime in the early to mid 1990's...
 
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ok, now that we have the set or no set issue squared away... thanks!!!

on the cars, what are their reference names? i.e. Coach, dining car, etc...


I apologize, I'm not an avid model train hobbyist... this was my dads hobby, and he passed away, and his ex put all this stuff in boxes and shipped it to me. funny thing is, I only got like 15 pieces of track. I got a boatload of rolling stock, 4 Kato diesels, 2 Trix Steamers, a model power Alco 420, & 2 Bachmann steamers... various road names including Erie Lackawanna, ConRail, Pennsy, Burligton Northern, & Union Pacific...

Thanks again...
 
It's hard to tell from the picture angle but it looks like the first and third car are identical coaches. The second car looks like a sleeper and has the additional detail of still having the lower skirting intact. The coaches had the skirting removed, which happened later in their operational lives, to make maintenance easier.

The last car is a typical baggage car. You can tell a baggage car because they usually have only two loading doors per side and no windows. This is where all the passenger luggage and some small packages that were sent by Railway Express would be carried.

In terms of value, in general terms, the older an N scale model is, the less it is worth. The N scale models of today are much better runners and much better detailed than the models of even 10 years ago. Kato always made decent models. Both of the engines are correctly numbered E-8's and the passenger cars are some of the better detailed 90's N scale models so they are worth a few bucks but probably a lot less than you think (or hope). The other locomotives you have ranged from pretty good to awful but we'd have to see pictures to know for sure. Same thing with the rolling stock. One thing you can do is check e-bay for the same items that have already sold and see what they went for. That should give you an idea of the what yours might be worth. There are also modelers here that will buy things from you but you really need to get a complete inventory together, have as many pictures as possible, and list them in the For Sale section. Other N scalers will let you know if you're asking too mch or too little.
 
It's hard to tell from the picture angle but it looks like the first and third car are identical coaches. The second car looks like a sleeper and has the additional detail of still having the lower skirting intact. The coaches had the skirting removed, which happened later in their operational lives, to make maintenance easier.

The last car is a typical baggage car. You can tell a baggage car because they usually have only two loading doors per side and no windows. This is where all the passenger luggage and some small packages that were sent by Railway Express would be carried.

In terms of value, in general terms, the older an N scale model is, the less it is worth. The N scale models of today are much better runners and much better detailed than the models of even 10 years ago. Kato always made decent models. Both of the engines are correctly numbered E-8's and the passenger cars are some of the better detailed 90's N scale models so they are worth a few bucks but probably a lot less than you think (or hope). The other locomotives you have ranged from pretty good to awful but we'd have to see pictures to know for sure. Same thing with the rolling stock. One thing you can do is check e-bay for the same items that have already sold and see what they went for. That should give you an idea of the what yours might be worth. There are also modelers here that will buy things from you but you really need to get a complete inventory together, have as many pictures as possible, and list them in the For Sale section. Other N scalers will let you know if you're asking too mch or too little.

Hello, and thanks again for the welcoming, and the reply...

I'm not looking to retire off thi stuff, nor am I wanting to get over on anyone. Years ago when I was younger I had a little interest in this hobby, but as most kids grow up, interests don't always stay the same. And, well, this is where I'm at.

I'm no expert in this hobby, and would feel better if these were in the hands of someone who would truly enjoy them (for other than sentimental reasons - which is probably why I held on to them for as long as I have) anyway... I would just like a fair take on these... ebay is always hit or miss...

Thanks again for the help...

Cheers...
 
Rico, that's a considerably newer set of Kato cars than the ones Schleprok has unless I'm seriously mistaken. However, the price of around $20 a car gives a good idea of the worth of the older cars, which I would guess would be in the $10 range.

Schleprok, I'm not suggesting you are trying to rip anyone off. It's just that many people who come here asking for information about train values believe they are worth much more than they really are. I'm just trying to put the likely pricing in a realistic light. E-bay is actually a very good resource for pricing since most auctions tend to reflect what the market is willing to pay. You'll certainly get more for the models there than trying to sell them to a hobby shop, which might give you half the auction value.
 
UP" no offense taken, and I didn't think this stuff was worth millions... I honestly asked because I didn't have any idea what this stuff is worth... so instead of guessing, I figured I'd ask those in the know...

I also know not having the boxes they came in originally, detracts from the "collector" value...
 






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