My passion in collecting is locating original sets, just
as they were sold, unmolested
by would be collectors, usually still in the families of the original owners. A lofty goal,
not always obtainable! To
that extent I have always distained displaying
old trains in ‘groups’ with walls of boxcars or locomotives representing years of production. One exception to my ‘rule’ has always been the little No. 54
gondola or ‘Gravel Car’. Certainly the smallest, maybe the most overlooked of anything ever cataloged by IVES. It
is the only piece that
appeared in the very first ‘track’ catalog in 1901 and the very last one in 1930. It may be that in 30 years of production, there are 30 distinct variations to
this little car. Hard to put
a number on them and it depends what
you call a variation.