Harrold's Model Train Museum is quite a place. Harrold Little, the owner, has been collecting antique toy trains and model railroads for many years. He only charges $3.50 per adult and $2.00 per child to go in and view his great collection of antique toy trains and other toy trains. He has two working model railroad layouts and diplays his collection of antique toy trains, model trains and rail cars along every wall at his place.
There is usually not very many visitors to Harrold's Museum on any given day, so when you go you usually get Harrold acting as your tour guide. He will fill you ears with lots of stories about how he found and collected every one of his toy trains. So where did Harrold find his antique toy train treasures? Well, when he first started out, he mostly found them through estate sales and auctions.
Harrold has great stories of finding some old toy trains and picking them up at super bargains at estate sales just in the East Texas area. But you have to be careful, Harrold warns. Over the years, he has found many fakes or replicas of antique toy trains being sold as genuine antiques. This is especially true, Harrold says, of some that he found in "antique" stores and malls.
What about today? Can you still find good deals on antique toy trains at auctions and estate sales? Harrold doesn't have a good answer to that question. Since Harrold opened his museum he has had less and less time to go out hunting. In addition, as word has spread about his model train museum, friends and total strangers have started bringing their train collections to him, including antique toy trains. Some of these people are looking for Harrold's opinion on the value of their pieces, others simply just give them to Harrold for his collection.
I wish someone would just give me their antique toy trains! Since I doubt that will happen soon, I guess I'll stick with visiting auctions and estate sales to find my next antique toy train treasure.
Looking for an antique toy train for your collection? Maybe you can find something below:
