I believe I got my original Lionel set for Christmas 1941 or 1942. I could be wrong as I cannot remember playing with it in the home we were in during WWII. (I did have the 1943 paper set.) We moved just as the war ended in 1945 when I was nine. In any case, I do remember how the 1700 series caboose looked without any ladders between the frame and the roof, so I know I'm correct about the cars. The set probably had the uncoupler track included as the gondola, I believe, had one link coupler and one box coupler. And of course it had the 2-4-2 engine with the E unit near the cab.

I would imagine that my Dad bought the bigger cars as thinking that it gave us more bang for the buck. (The kid across the street had a 1688 with the smaller O-27 cars.) I can't remember bringing the set home from downtown Indianapolis but I do remember the crowd watching the layout in the store. Would the Ives cars still have been available in an un-cataloged set after the war? I've been able to purchase a set of the cars and the Columbia loco as well as the uncoupler track. I got a junk caboose to get the box coupler but will probably use the box car to put it on instead of the gondola since I'll most likely use a screw/washer/nut to re-attach the truck instead of a rivet. At my age, (80) I'm not going to get that involved in tinplate again. I just wanted a set of cars to let the cats chase on the living room floor.

This was purchased at the Wm H. Block company, a large department store in Indianapolis, so I imagine that it was boxed and ready to go. I believe they were relatively "famous" for their Christmas layout of Lionel trains. I have a very faint memory of the crush of the crowd in my mind, and how long it took my Dad and Uncle to set up the set on Christmas morning. And of course, I could not go near the front room while they were doing so. (It would also have been nice if I could have played with it some that day...)