Joe Algozzini, perhaps the preeminent expert on Lionel trains and accessories manufactured during the post-World War II era (1945-69) has been contributing deeply researched and thoughtfully written articles to Classic Toy Trains since its second issue hit newsstands in the spring of 1988. To be honest, Joe was laying the groundwork for what became the top magazine devoted to collectible and contemporary toy trains even earlier, when he put together the “Heritage Fleet” profiles of noteworthy O gauge models for Model Railroader in the middle 1980s.
Which locomotive?
We wanted to ask Joe, who knows the Lionel diesel, electric, and steam locomotives cataloged during the postwar period which he considers his favorite. Does this authority have a “Locomotive We Love”? Turns out he definitely does. Joe selected the No. 2245 Texas Special F3 diesels cataloged in 1954 and ’55.
How was it acquired?
These Lionel No. 2245 Texas Special F3 A-B diesels, while far from rare, occupy a special place in the spectacular collection of postwar trains and accessories built by expert Joe Algozzini over the past 60 years. Seeing them at Pee Wee’s Toys & Hobbies in December of 1965 inspired him to buy them and begin collecting.In the middle 1960s, right about the time Joe entered college, he found out that hobby shops and other retail outlets in Chicago, not far from where he had grown up, still had mint Lionel trains from the 1950s for sale. He remembered how as a boy he would study the consumer catalog Lionel put out each year and pick out his favorites. He knew what he wanted his parents to buy for Christmas.
Anyway, while enrolled as a local junior college, Joe had a part-time job at the Ben Franklin 5 & 10 store in town. He prepared to punch out one Friday night, when his boss asked if he would go to another Ben Franklin to pick up some Christmas items that had sold out. The promise of earning a few more dollars enticed Joe, and so he told his boss that he would take care of things.
Parking near the Ben Franklin in Highland, Ind., Joe noticed Pee Wee’s Toys & Hobbies. There in its front window sat a Lionel No. 2245 Texas Special F3 A-B combination. Eying the handsome diesels ignited memories of gazing at illustrations of them in the Lionel catalog for 1954, when he was seven years old.
The locomotives had a price of $15, which represented half of what Joe was going to be paid that week. “For once,” he laughs, “I didn’t spend any of my paycheck on weekend entertainment. I just couldn’t get those F3s off my mind.”
Anybody who collects toy trains knows only too well what it feels like when a model has captured your heart. “By Tuesday,” Joe recalls, “I couldn’t take it any longer. I drove to Pee Wee’s and made my first adult purchase of a Lionel train. Yes, I still own the Texas Special diesels and still have the store receipt.”
Why he loves it
Joe puts the Lionel 2245 Texas Special F3 diesels at the top of his list of locomotives for a couple of reasons. First, he had admired the A-B combination as a youngster and probably wished his family might have presented it to him at the holidays or his birthday. He says, “I couldn’t get everything I liked in the catalog back in 1954 and ’55, so I wasn’t terribly disappointed at the time.”
What else does Joe recall? “Well, with my family living near Chicago, I had an interest in the No. 2363 Illinois Central F3s Lionel introduced in 1955. And brown is a color I like, so I liked the color scheme of the Illinois Central F3s. But when I saw the Texas Specials at Pee Wee’s, I just knew they were the best.”
Something else makes the 2245s so important to Joe. They really ignited what has become a lifelong passion for Lionel trains of the postwar era, one that has driven Joe to learn everything that he can about how they were designed and manufactured. Before long while in college, he was regularly visiting stores in and around Chicago. Back then, he brought home more postwar models for the sole purpose of operating them. “Just running them for my pleasure and that of anyone else who happened to stop by our family’s home was good enough.”
Memories of what Lionel had once cataloged eventually resuscitated Joe’s interest in those magnificent three-rail beauties and launched his great career. He knows precisely when his memories kicked in, too. No wonder Joe states without a bit of doubt, “My life changed forever on Friday evening, December 17, 1965.”
