We’re almost there! Railroad Memories auction ends Fri., Aug. 26

[singlepic id=433 w=320 h=240 float=left]If your passion is railroad memorabilia, you won’t want to miss the Railroad Memories Auction Catalog #80: Bidding ends this Friday, Aug. 26, at 5 p.m. Mountain Time.

As usual, there is a slew of great stuff, with plenty of crossover pieces – silver, china, advertising and decorative items – even keys, locks and other hardware – if trains specifically aren’t your main interest. Amateur genealogists with an ancestor who worked on a railroad are bound to find something the whole family will cherish.

Railroad Memories is based in Denver, where railroadiana collecting is serious business, and the current auction doesn’t disappoint. Since I collect the “Pathfinder of the San Juans,” Colorado railroad builder Otto Mears, I was delighted to find a 1901 Silverton Railroad Co. pass with Mears’ printed signature (lot 496).

I asked Railroad Memories owner Susan Knous what she considers the auction highlights. Susan noted:

• Miniature telegraph equipment (lots 26 and 27) given away as retirement gifts.
• Cap badges, including a rare New York & Harlem brakeman’s badge (lot 46) from one of the first railroads in the United States.
• Locomotive builders’ plates, including an American Locomotive Works plate from the Denver & Rio Grande (lot 113).
• Dining car china, including an Illinois Central New Orleans French Quarter service plate (lot 171) and a George Washington service plate (lot 148)
• Glassware, including an early Santa Fe banner-pattern glass (lot 199).
• Silver, including a Denver & Rio Grande Western sugar bowl (lot 213) and Great Northern Railway medallion soup tureen (lot 215).
• Express items, including rare wax Wells Fargo & Co. sealers (lot 257) from Pring, Colo., as well as early (1869) Athens & Pomeroy/Athens & Logan United States Mail Stage Coach Lines pass (lot 250) and a Canadian National Express badge (lot 251).
• Among the 96 rare keys in the sale are ones from the Boyne City Gaylord & Alpena Railroad (lot 264) and one from the Burlington Cedar Rapids & Northern (lot 265).
• Lanterns include a rare Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek District lantern (lot 384); an early 1870s CSS & AL Baron lantern (lot 385); and a brass top Fitchburg with a clear cast globe (lot 395).
• There are 40 lock, many with keys, including A rare Canadian Northern Ontario six-lever (lot 431); a Great Northern fancy back (lot 438); a Missouri Pacific Railway Keen Kutter dated 1923 (lot 444); an Oregon Short Line Switch (lot 450); and a Union Pacific System “Overland Route” lock with a steel key (lot 464).
• The nice selection of passes includes an 1893 Colorado Midland “Santa Fé Route” pass (lot 471); an 1897 Manitou & Pike’s Peak Railway “Cog Wheel Route” pass (lot 484); and an 1888 Utah Central pass (lot 503).
• For the ephemera collector, there are lots of paper items, including souvenir playing cards, a large postcard collection and breakfast menu for the Rio Grande “Special Train … Thru the Rockies” taking President Harry Truman from Denver to Ogden, Utah, on Sept. 20 to 21, 1948, signed by Truman (lot 531).

You have to register to bid, so get right on it if you haven’t already. See all the lots at Railroadmemories.com.

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All images courtesy of Railroadmemories.com.