Unusual Lionel Miscellany
By Paul V. Ambrose, TCA #84-2153 Fall 2025 e*Train
In the mid-1970s, my marital residence was in Teaneck, NJ. After the divorce in 1988, I then happily resided in the Delaware Water Gap area for twelve years as a care-free bachelor. Then, circa year 2000, after attending a class reunion at the behest of a classmate, I rekindled a romance with a recently divorced high-school sweetheart. Shortly thereafter, I relocated to my hometown of Canonsburg, PA. Gloria and I are married, and we are now living happily ever after.
Location-wise, from the mid-1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, I was living in a fantasy Train Collectors Paradise. Fortunately, I was one of the chosen few to be accepted at Madison Hardware. During that approximately 25-year time period, there were nu- numerous outlets to find quality, collectible Lionel trains.
Train shows, for example, were held at the Westchester, NY, Convention Center. The Train Collector’s Warehouse (Ed Prendeville’s establishment) in Parsippany, NJ, was only thirty minutes away. Events were also regularly held at the old (Jersey Central) Train Station in Jersey City. Then, there were also the somewhat smaller Joe Ranker shows in Wayne, NJ, and the Don Brill shows in Dover, NJ. The Allentown Fairgrounds were only an hour away, with large shows almost every month that ran the gamut from trains to paper, to glass, and even fishing collectibles, where I found many of my Airex fishing gems. Photos 1 and 2 show pink and aqua colored fishing reels in the colors of the Girl’s Train from 1957.
Then there were well-attended shows at the Westover Country Club in Norristown, PA, as well. Unfortunately, time marches- es on, and that one-time Paradise is now lost forever. Shown here in Photos 3 and 4 are an unusual group of miscellaneous items acquired over many years of collecting, most from sources that I can’t even remember now.
One item in particular is the rare red Lionel No.76 Boulevard Street Lamp shown in Photo 3. It definitely came from Ed Prendeville of the Train Collector’s Warehouse. Also in Photo 3 are two tan cable reels with aluminum wire, a Lionel 1008 camtrol with a white base, and an amazing preproduction sample of an unpainted gray 6801-type boat. Note the windshield on the boat is also gray (not clear) plastic, and it is molded into the body. Further note, this sample does not have the typical raised lettering on the deck that appears on the production model. Photo 2 shows enlarged samples of two different-sized black horses and a white plastic knuckle coupler.
