My name is Gayl. My wife,adult son and I are addicted to antique mall crawling.We are usually in search of breweriana,automobilia,sporting goods,and tableware. I have been meaning to find a nice start to model railroad collecting but until recently never found the right item.I had countless HO sets as a child and a couple as an adult,my dad had an N scale set (i still have) and my son in law has an enormous N scale layout so we are not totally new to model railroading. I hate to pay full retail for stuff so in my case these trips end up being a hunt for pieces that the seller really doesn't appreciate the value of. Yesterday I was able to purchase a post war 1609 set for $26.50. The track,transformer,loco,caboose,hopper car are present and accounted for but the gondola is MIA with a 3330 flat car with what seem to be submarine retaining wires in it's place. The set came with several pieces of extra track some old catalogs and manuals and a cross track piece.No original box but packaged in an 80's era track expansion set box. Not exactly top of the line stuff but I'm thrilled with the set and have another new passion to hunt for. The old girl flies around the dining room table nicely and for the price I feel blessed to have it! Thanks for maintaing this forum and allowing the likes of me to sign up !