'Antiques Roadshow' guest says 'oh my, good heavens' after hearing the value of his toy train set

An elderly guest on "Antiques Roadshow" received a surprising appraisal for his old toy train set. The owner of the Lionel Blue Comet Train, who inherited it from his cousin, had little to no idea about how significant his train set was. Thus, the show's expert, Leila Dunbar, left him astonished by delivering a staggering appraisal of $10,000 for the toy. 

In the episode, the guest shared how the item was passed down to him and how everyone in his family cherished it for years. "It belonged to my uncle, and my cousin got it. Then my cousin died, and his wife asked me if I'd like to have it," he shared with Dunbar. When asked if he was a locomotive fanatic, the guest shared that he wasn't until he got the set. He further shared that he didn't know much about Lionel Company either, apart from the fact that they had been in business for a long time. 

Dunbar then took over to fill in the blanks for the guest. "First of all, Lionel was the middle name of Joshua Lionel Cowan, earlier Cohen, but later Cowan. He came over to the States, and in the late 1800s, he developed the flash powder that photographers use. And it was so successful, the Navy contracted to use this flash powder for mine detonation. This is how he got his stake, and he could start the Lionel Train Company, which he thought of when he saw a small fan, and he tried to figure out how to use it," the expert shared.

She further explained that the inventor began with small toy trains and was the one who created the standard gauge. "And what he endeavored to do with standard gauge was to make the most beautiful, luxurious trains for kids possible," Dunbar added. Coming to the set in front of her, she said that it was the Blue Comet, which is one of the inventor's greatest accomplishments. She told the guest that it was released in the early 1930s, and it was based on a real train of the same name that ran between 1929 and 1941.

"It was called the seashore's finest train. And it was competing with the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was painted blue because of the Jersey seashore," Dunbar shared. "The train was so beautiful that people would wait for it to come down the tracks so they could watch it go by," she added. She further examined that the train set had all the luxuries, including triple-cushion mohair seats, a bathroom, a smoking room, and an observation deck, which was unheard of for a Lionel train at the time. Coming to the appraisal, Dunbar asked the guest to take a guess. "Between $2,000 and $4,000, possibly," the owner responded.

The expert then went on to blow his mind by revealing that the set cost about $70 in the 1930s, which was a lot of money at that time. "For auction, I would put this at an estimate $8,000 to $10,000," Dunbar revealed. This astonished the guest as he said, "Oh, my. Good heavens!"

In the end, Dunbar added that similar sets went for up to $11,500 in the past, and the Blue Comet could get that too. "That makes me want to treasure it even more," the guest said in the end. 

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