Cast Iron Floor Trains: An Encyclopedia With Rarity and Price Guide

Rating:
Summary: One-of-a-kind, great for collectors or a coffee-table.
Review: When I first saw Cast Iron Floor Trains, I was astonished. I have known the author informally for close to 30 years, and knew of his passion for things old, but this was clearly a labor of love that went beyond the word "collector." Ralston has many different collections--antiques, old cars, Hawaiiana, whaling artifacts and toys--and he has a dogged commitment for passing on what he has learnedabout each category and each piece. That has never been so evident than this project--the 324-page encyclopedia, Cast Iron Floor Trains. Ralston spent ten years--TEN YEARS--collecting and cataloging every variation of these behemoth toys that were manufactured between 1880 and the Depression. Every color, every minuscule variation in casting, every slight difference was carefully noted, then checked and rechecked. The guy who comes second has a comparative piece of cake--he just looks it up in the book. Ralston did not have that luxury. He was writing the book. And it was a stupendous task. Unlike the later Lionel or American Flyer electric trains, most of these had no manufacturer's name or logo on them and but a few, often erroneous, catalogs. Compounding the detective work, they were usually built to be sold under different brand names and in different configurations. "Often, especially very late at night, it seemed really daunting, but then I'd see a clue I'd overlooked before and everything was worth it again. At times, it's like trying to work a jigsaw puzzle for which you'll never have all the pieces. Over the years, I've tried to put complete sets together--either with their original components or simply with locomotives and cars which are appropriate for one another. I might find an engine here, a tender there, a passenger car in California, a baggage car in New Jersey. Bringing them all together is the fun part-finding them a home where they belong. Sometimes, original pieces in a set have been separated for many years." The research that Ralston calls his "detective work" took him not only through his own collection again and again, but to other collector's homes and toy rooms and to shows, shops and auctions from one end of the country to the other. The result is a beautiful and useful coffee-table book with each different set photographed and detailed AND a price and rarity guide. Lionel guru Bruce Greenberg, who has written the authoritative works on electric trains, says, "Rick Ralston has produced what will undoubtedly be recognized as the most important, scholarly work on American cast-iron toy trains. Cast Iron Floor Trains is a collector guide of the highest quality. Its carefully researched text reports on the history of each cast-iron train manufacturer, systematically describes each set, provides an extensive photographic record of cast-iron production as well as recommendations for building and maintaining this type of collection." I can only second that comment. In one reading, I went from being vaguely interested in these early toys, to very interested!