Antiques Roadshow

GUEST: A couple years ago, I was looking around at trains and stuff that was for sale.

This caught my eye.

It was big, bigger than most.

The guy was asking $200.

APPRAISER: It is modeled after a real steam engine.

This is a 700E Hudson engine made by the Lionel Corporation.

It's a 4-6-4 truck configuration.

It's very heavy.

GUEST: I agree, oh, yeah.

APPRAISER: Much heavy...

GUEST: Very heavy.

APPRAISER: Much heavier than most trains.

This engine, uh, and tender, they're made of a die-cast mold as opposed to being a tinplate train.

This was Lionel's introduction into scale-model railroad, instead of just toy trains.

It's actually a 1:48 scale of the original Hudson engine.

It's a very exact scale model.

Lionel invested a lot of money to create this.

This train could be electrified and ran on train tracks, or it could be prominently displayed as a presentation piece.

They originally produced this in 1937, and it ran for five years, until 1942, when they had to stop it for World War II.

Then they did reintroduce it again a few years later with some slight modifications to the design.

And this is a pre-war example.

That's when they were stamped the 5344.

This was really expensive at the time it was made.

This would have cost anywhere from $50 to $75.

It was a very popular seller.

The president of Lionel himself even had this on his mantel.

Given this heavy weight of several pounds and how brittle die-cast can become, this can break very easily.

The front end, for example, the cowcatcher, this could easily crack, be dislodged, broken off entirely.

The other thing that happens on these engines is, they can warp and bend.

I'm very happy to report yours is in beautiful condition.

It is authentic and it is all original.

In this condition, this train engine and tender would have an auction estimate of $2,000 to $3,000.

GUEST: Really?

Wow.

I wouldn't have expected that much.

No, not at all.

That's really cool, though.

Thank you so much... APPRAISER: My pleasure.

GUEST: for all the information.