Run 230 August / September 2008

Run 230 August / September 2008 $5.95 $6.95 Canada O GAUGE RAILROADING AUGUST / SEPTEMBER ogaugerr.com 2008 1

Building Your Own Collectibles Photos by Rich Melvin The Lionel Collectors Club of America (LCCA) has a long history of producing interesting and colorful rolling stock and locomotives exclusively for its members, but the decision to make a reproduction of the fabled postwar 1960 Halloween General Set broke new ground. This would be the first time a complete set would be offered to LCCA members as one package. Buying a special car was one thing, but would LCCA collectors pay almost $300.00 for a reproduction set? Answering that question provides an inside look into how Lionel and the LCCA worked together and created a modern version of a legendary postwar favorite. A Brief History of the Lionel Halloween Set This set had long been confused with the similar 9666 Sears set from 1959. The components were similar: a General locomotive, a flatcar with horses, and a combination baggage-mail car and passenger coach. But the Sears set used different colors, car numbers, and packaging. It was only in the last few years that diligent research on the part of postwar collectors positively nailed down the identity of the Halloween General and the set that went with it. (See Greenberg s Guide to Lionel Trains 1945-1969, Volume IV by Paul V. Ambrose and Joseph P. Algozzini.) The LCCA supplemented this research with the examination of several complete Halloween sets. The club also used an original engine and cars as samples. What came to be known as the Halloween General Set by collectors was marketed in 1960 by a mail order firm named Gifts Galore. The colors chosen for the 4-4-0 General locomotive gave the set its name and were unique to the Gifts Galore train outfit. The engine boiler was painted black, and the engineer cab and cowcatcher were a flat orange, with 1882 on the side of the cab. The steam dome, sand dome, and ornate bell were painted gold. Since it was an O27 engine, the 1882 did not have gold boiler bands on the body or MagneTraction on the driving wheels. The 1882T tender body was black and orange, with the gold, heat-stamped initials of the Western & Atlantic Railroad on the sides. Many collectors consider it the most attractive General made during the postwar era. The fenced flatcar with horses was numbered 1887 and was the only car of its type that had yellow fences and carried this number. Other fenced flatcars with horses were branded with the number 1877. The 1866 combination baggagemail car had a yellow body with brown roof and lettering. It was a standard production O27 item that was built from 1959 to 1962 and was a component in cataloged O27 General sets. On the other hand, the blue 1885 passenger coach was O GAUGE RAILROADING AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2008 95

1 made only in 1960 just for this set. All the other passenger coaches in the series were painted yellow. As a result, the 1885 is especially prized by collectors even though it is not lighted and does not have operating couplers. The special flat-top set box without a lid had a die-cut insert adorned with red and green glitter that, in addition to the other set components, also held a 1015 transformer, 12 pieces of curved O27 track, 4 straight O27 tracks, a 90-degree crossing, and last but not least the 963-100 Lionel Frontier Set. The Frontier Set was the only boxed item in the set and consisted of a Plasticville log cabin, a windmill, log fencing, five animals, and a water pump with handle. Both the box and the 963-100 number were unique to the Gifts Galore Halloween General Set. The set box had a plain cardboard sleeve to enclose the contents, and for additional protection inside, the set was covered with a piece of gray cardstock. There was no number on the set box and, as this is written, no number has been unearthed for the Halloween General Set. Considerations in Building the Set Several reasons motivated the LCCA to remake the Halloween General Set. Collector interest in a modern version was almost a given. Original examples of complete sets are hard to come by in any condition. Locomotives and cars can be found separately on auction sites and at train shows, but they are usually in pretty bad shape and are more suitable for use by operators than as display pieces. A Halloween General Set in pristine condition, with the distinctive packaging intact, is virtually impossible to find, and the prices demanded for such a set are beyond the means of all but the most affluent collectors. It is probably safe to say that due to scarcity and desirability, it is the most expensive postwar set to acquire that is headed by a 4-4-0 General locomotive. Let s face it, when the asking price hits five figures, most of us are out of the running for an original. A reproduction is the only realistic choice we have for something like a Halloween General Set. Production costs and tooling availability were two other important factors where fortune smiled on the LCCA. Even though original sets were ferociously expensive in the marketplace, cost estimates for a quantity of new-build Halloween General Sets indicated they could be sold for a surprisingly affordable price. Better yet, Lionel was using the tooling for a similar General set featured in the 2003 catalogs the 6-31939 Great Train Robbery Set, which came complete with track, transformer, and a handcar. This meant the tooling was available at the factory, and a time-consuming, possibly expensive search for it was not required. Now the challenge for Lou Caponi, then president-elect of the LCCA, and Mike Braga, at that time director of Lionel Customer Service, was to translate the historical knowledge they had gained about the set and its obvious desirability into an attractive, affordable package that collectors would buy. The LCCA also wanted to use the set to entice new members to join their club. The rest of this story chronicles how they did it. Set Descriptions and Trade-Offs It was neither possible nor desirable to make an exact replica of the postwar set and its packaging. Trade-offs were necessary and they largely benefited the final product LCCA buyers received. Overall, the overriding priority was to make the outward appearance of each piece of the 6-52300 Halloween General Set look as close to its original counterpart as modern manufacturing techniques would allow (Photo 1). The General The colorful 1882, 4-4-0 steamer and 1882T tender were upgraded from the postwar version. A smoke cap was added to the smokestack along with an operating smoke unit. The motor and frame assembly were modified to ensure that the new 6-52301 General would go down the track smoothly without wobbling. The tooling for the postwar-style open-frame motor could not be found, so Lou stayed with the modern can motor and solid state E-unit, which increased reliability. The rear drivers were equipped with traction tires, and that made it feasible for the General to haul more cars than the three in the basic set. The black and orange colors of the locomotive and tender were carefully matched with a postwar Halloween General, which was destroyed while being studied as a paint sample along with the three original cars that were also sent to China as paint 2 96 O GAUGE RAILROADING AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2008

and appearance samples. This had repercussions when it came time to do the packaging. Rolling Stock Die-cast metal trucks and operating couplers replaced the plastic trucks and couplers of the postwar cars. This gave a high-quality look and better operating characteristics to the 6-52304, 1887 flatcar with horses (Photo 2), the 6-52303, 1866 combination baggagemail car, and the 6-52302, 1885 passenger coach. Technological advances allowed the addition of an air whistle in the yellow and brown baggage-mail car (Photo 3) without raising the cost of the set too much. Lou reasoned that every set with a steam engine should have a whistle, so in it went. There was precedent for this in the postwar Lionel line. The more expensive Super O General sets housed air whistles in their 1875W yellow and brown coaches because the locomotive tenders of the Generals were too small to accommodate them. The desirable blue and brown passenger car was the hardest car to do right (Photo 4). Illuminating the car was easy, but the blue on the body needed to match the color of the original, and it took five or six tries before Lou was satisfied. This snag happened even though the factory had a postwar sample for reference. More Trade-Offs Certain items from the 1960 Gifts Galore outfit did not make it into the LCCA set. The transformer, the figure eight of O27 track, and the 90-degree crossing were easy to delete. They added cost, took up valuable space in the set box, and collectors had little or no use for them. The Lionel Frontier Set was another matter. It would have made a desirable addition to the LCCA set, but the club would not commit to production quantities a year in advance as Bachmann, the owner of the Plasticville line, required. Excess inventory of Plasticville would have devalued the set in the eyes of collectors. 3 4 O GAUGE RAILROADING AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2008 97

5 Besides, the results demonstrate that deleting the Lionel Frontier Set and concentrating solely on the production of the engine and rolling stock proved to be a good decision (Photo 5). Set Box Packaging The idea of using an exact replica of the original box was abandoned at an early stage. After what had happened at the factory to the Halloween General Set samples, Nobody who owned an original set box was crazy enough to lend us one to send to China, Lou said. Postwar sets with boxes were worth far more on the collector market than components without them, and it was just too big a risk for a private owner to ship one overseas. This gave Lou Caponi and the Lionel graphics people the opportunity to come up with a brand-new design. The end result, shown in Photo 6, was a classylooking box cover that utilized glossy black and orange to frame the colorful Lionel logo on the upper left and the LCCA Lenny the Lion patch on the lower right. These elements helped highlight the dignified script in the center that spelled out The Halloween General, with the drawing of the General below it. The cover looked so good it became the branding for the new Halloween General Set. Three requirements had been specified for the design. It had to have a lift-off lid, be made to certain dimensions, and carry the line Produced Exclusively for the Lionel Collectors Club of America by Lionel LLC. There were objections that 98 O GAUGE RAILROADING AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2008

the black boxes would be dull and not look good on retail shelves. It was pointed out that the set was going to private collectors, and one look at the lively box art dispelled the dullness argument (Photo 7). In what seemed to become a recurring situation for the program, two problems delayed production of the box and the delivery of the set for several months. The statement that proclaimed the set was produced exclusively for the LCCA was omitted, and the drawing of the General used the wrong black shade for the body so that it got lost on the glossy black cover. The body color of the General had to be a different shade of black than the box cover to make the design work. It took four weeks to get another box sample and three months to produce the final approved version that enabled the sets to be shipped. The finished Halloween General Sets sat at the factory (Photo 8) until the new lids could be produced because it was too expensive to send them first and then ship the redesigned lids separately. so well done it received a national advertising award (Photo 9). One of the aims of producing the set was to use it as a vehicle for gaining new members. New members and current members could only buy one set each, which motivated more people to join the club. By the time the December 15, 2003, ordering deadline was reached, the LCCA had three times the number of orders than 6 Advertising and Promotion The first hobby magazine ad for the LCCA Halloween General Set appeared in the October 2003 issue of OGR. It was aimed squarely at nonmembers. For $299.95, they could join the LCCA for a year and buy the set with free shipping. The member price was $269.95. A later ad produced by the LCCA was 8 7 O GAUGE RAILROADING AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2008 99

had been projected. The Halloween General Set program also fit well with the club s efforts to continue to provide members with unique benefits as part of their LCCA experience. The General set promotion succeeded on both counts. Collectors were glad to own it, and operators enjoyed running it. Not bad for a set that initially cost less than $300.00 and mimicked the best qualities of a legendary Lionel outfit that could cost thousands more than that. The LCCA Halloween General Sets are routinely going for twice the launch price and more that is not bad either. CHECK OUR WEB www.trainstop.com Award winning 2003 LCCA ad 9 Interested in Advertising in this Magazine? Call 1-800-980-6477 to Find Out More! 100 O GAUGE RAILROADING AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2008

Run 230 August / September 2008 $5.95 $6.95 Canada O GAUGE RAILROADING AUGUST / SEPTEMBER ogaugerr.com 2008 1