How to tell how old a train is?

[gijoe80]

I received some trains from my great grandfather in the late 80's or early 90's before he passed away some of his train set. It was boxed up until recently since I had no place to start work on it. My great grandfather had a huge train lay out with at least some of my pieces being from Bachmann. Surprisingly everything still works great especially the control and the engine. The engine is a Santa FE 307 engine. Compared to one that I recently acquired at a local train show, mine is the exact same engine except that instead of being red and grey it is red and a shiny metallic silver. Granted it still works, but I am wondering how old it is out of curiosity sake. My grandfather was born in the 20's, and like I said it was my great grandfather's set so that might help?

Also, if there is anyone here on the central coast of California, I would also like help in setting up my train set around my ceiling atrium area which has a ledge and nice light system.

[gijoe80]

I took the casing off and it has the numbers 91019 if that helps anybody

[rogertra]

Not worth anything except for sentimental value, if that's what you are fishing for.

There's almost no market for old, low end plastic model railroad equipment.

[gijoe80]

Not looking for value. Just looking for age, as in what year it was approximately made or sold on the market.

[uscgtanker]

you can tell partly on the wiring and the coils in the motor. the older coils will have coroded a little and don't have a shine. Also the wieghts will be a steel or iron instead of the new stanles steel aloys. If the coils are a dark brown dirt you might want to clean it by puting the coil in a oil bath and wire brush it.

[richg]

Take a look at the below site. Slight chance you will find some info.

http://www.hoseeker.net/bachmann.html

Rich

[thewvnetwork]

gijoe80 --

I started model railroading in 1995, and a "shiny silver" Santa Fe #307 was one of the first locomotives I got.  It was purchased by my parents at Wal-Mart (yup, they used to sell trains!) and I got it for Christmas (the reason I know is I had seen it there and put it on my "wish list" lol).  I, too, later got a "non shiny" version of the same engine used at a yard sale, and it actually turned out that it was the older of the two.  I have since seen the non shiny one new in the box at a hobby shop, so I'm guessing these are just basic generic products that Bachmann offers at a low price point to get kids (or even adults) started in the hobby, and both could be offered concurrently.  

So really, neither of them are rare or of any financial value.  The only way there might be a value is if it is made of actual stainless steel or something, which I doubt ever happened...

[jward]

while i couldn't find any locomotives matching your part number 91019, bachmann did make the f9 in santa fe in several different variations, one of which was chrome plated. they carried the number 307 as well. assuming this is what you have, it would be from the late 1970s, early 1980s. since you took the body off to look at the insides, does it have the motor mounted on the front truck? or is the motor located in the center of the locomotive with drive shafts and worm gears powering both trucks?


http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/bachmannhoscalelocomotives/id42.html