Model Trains inquiry (Lima, Rocco)

Welcome to the greatest hobby in the world. A 3 year old can learn about trains. You might want to buy an inexpensive starter set to help teach him. My two were playing with some of my trains at that age. (I was in the room at the same time.)

Check your phonebook under Hobby and Craft. Look for a store that sells trains. Bring one in so they can tell you what scale you have so you can get some track. If you want and can, take pictures of the trains and post them on a web site and give the url to it here. Someone will likely look at it and help with some identification. If the clerk seems knowledgeable about the trains, and they have a test track, you might bring in an engine to see if it will run and what kind of service it might need. You do not say where you live, but if you are in the Detroit area of Michigan, go to Joe's Hobby Center on Grand River Avenue in Farmington. Mark (the owner) knows about trains and only hires people who are in the hobby. Otherwise, tell us where you live and someone will tell you about the hobby shops in your area. Also, pick up the latest copy of Model Railroader Magazine. The back pages have a listing of hobby shops by state.

This is pretty cool. I take it you haven't been interested in model railroading before this. I'm glad that you aren't just out to sell them.

As I'd imagine you realize, any attempt to put a value on them would require a lot more information. What are they made out of (plastic, brass)? What is the condition? What scale are they? Railroad models come in many sizes. I suspect these are "HO" gauge. If you measure between the wheels, does it look like they would fit on track with rails that are 16.5mm (about 5/8 inch) apart?

Can you take any pictures of them? If you need somebody to put them on a website so everybody can take a look, I could do that for you. I'm not sure if anybody here will be able to give you accurate market values, but at least we might be able to tell you just what you've got.

Dale

Thank you Dale and Frank for the responses. I am posting from Finland and the house I bought where I inherited the trains was in Turkey (I bought a summer sea-side villa). Yes, I will ASAP get around to taking the pictures of these trains and I will post them on a blog (I'll make a blogspot blog for that purpose). Perhaps then I can get help.

I already did some internet searching and found out that we're talking about some 140 to 200 euros for the Roco engines, and perhaps some 50 to

80 euros for the Lima ones. There are more engines, locomotives in my hand then boxcars, paasenger cars, etc. Some of them are plastic (Limas, mainly) and some of them metal.

Like I said, I am not into selling them at all. Since I already have a high-end audio hobby so I don't think I will go into this as a full blown hobby per se, but I will want to make a nice track set to the kid and me to play around with.

Will keep you all posted for the blog and pics.

Dale wrote:

I would not be to much exited about this figures.

You asked for the price of an used italian car without telling any details at all. It could be a rusty vintage Fiat or an almost new ferrari.

New Roco trains can be bought fairly cheap(engine 50-100 Euro) so unless you have a rare model in mint condition with box (which no one can tell by your more than vague description) why should anybody want to pay more?

Ok, if it really says "Rocco" on the bottom it might be very rare or a far eastern copy. ;-) Lima was well known for cheap models for a long time, I would not pay much for them either. They have made quite a lot of different cars from almost every European railroad company over the years so the chances to have some rare and wanted models are greater but on the other hand since many of them now can be bought from other companies I doubt that.

I would watch some of the European ebay sites to get an impression of the market.

CU db