The Mythical Creswell 600E

I know, I haven't been posting.  Been loving the trains I have and missing the friend's I've lost the last few years.

I did watch an online auction today that rekindled some of my interest.  I saw quite a few standard gauge lots go on Ebay Live auctions (Craig Miller Collection) offered by Turner Auctions.  Very solid auction that was well done.  The prices were completely reasonable and what caught my eye was this:

The mythical Creswell 600e.  Went for over $5000 bucks with a buyers premium tacked on.  It was clearly the main event of the auction.  I bid once or twice however once it jet past $1500 I had to bow out.  It absolutely doesn't disappoint.  The Hudson in Standard Gauge has always been a "must have" and this is a really cool engine.  The last one I knew of was with my friend Arno.  The story of Harlen Creswell still sits in Arno's un-finished bible of Modern Era Standard Gauge (MESG).   I hope the buyer gets a ton of pleasure out of such a unique and wonderful piece.  The DD1's were also kind of cool.  Most of the auction was fun items at absolutely reasonable prices.

Here's a Creswell 600E one of the guys at the O Gauge forum was good enough to post here.

I hope some other folks take note - thinking outside the box and producing items that are NOT necessarily classic Lionel reproductions are in fact desirable.  I saw the Rich Art monster engines move as well.  For anyone wanting one, they don't disappoint. 

I also heard recently my friend Butch Alvarado passed away.  I was stunned by this as he seemed like a guy that was never healthy and yet was bound and determined to live forever.  He was Dick Mayer's right hand and a hold over from the 60's I always enjoyed talking to.  He's the only way I knew anything about Cal-Stewart and all of the cool train stuff there is in California.  I'll really miss him as he was also my dinner bud when I was in San Diego.  I'll miss Butch!!

Prices and People in 2017

I watch the toy train world largely from the sidelines these days.  With many of my friends in the hobby gone and the hobby changing, much of the luster is gone for me.  I still love toy trains and I still have quite a few, however I haven't purchased a new toy train since 2015.  MTH's offerings are a bit on the high side for costing and most of them are re-treads of what was already there.  I really wanted a standard gauge subway set however that was not meant to be.

I watch may of the newbies struggling to find some of the stories online.  I periodically look at the forums.  I'm a little sad for them as they didn't get to meet some of the people I did like Lenny Dean or get to go to Madison Hardware (I did go and got to shake hands with Carl and Lou!).

It's time I hear some stories from some of my readers.  Send them to mrkuffler@aol.com!

M