Other rare Ives trains include the Prosperity Special, a copper- and nickel-plated passenger train that went on the market for $100 in 1929, just before the stock market crashed, and the 1930 red-and-blue National Limited, a six-piece passenger train. American Flyer's chrome-plated Mayflower, made in the late 1920's, was a premium-priced limited edition that also originally sold for $100. In the late 1940's Lionel made only a handful of its 2333 model Santa Fe's, with clear polystyrene shells that showed all the inner workings. One sold recently for $34,000, Mr. Stout said, double the price it brought eight years ago.  Prices at the very top end of the vintage train market have gone up by about 10 percent annually over the last decade, as deep-pocketed male baby boomers spend significant sums to recapture their youth. They are willing to pay a premium for perfection in the trains, boxes, bridges, stations, semaphores, miniature American Gothic churches and tiny fake trees. Even original retail display materials now command staggering sums for the same reason, Mr. Tobias said.  "They are wealthy; they just want it; and that's how these prices get set," Mr. Tobias said. "There are a lot of egos involved."  The fact that toy train aficionados are almost all men has something to do with the male psyche that goes beyond the innately human desire to acquire things, suggested Dr. Paul Wasserman, president of the 50-year-old, 50,000-member Train Collectors Association, based at the National Toy Train Museum in Strasburg, Pa.  "Men like to do modeling, build things with their hands and do the layouts," explained Dr. Wasserman, a medical oncologist who put a 1,000-square-foot addition on his Arizona home to display his trains. "It's kind of an empire complex, too: I want to control and master this piece of territory."  Wind-up, clockwork floor trains have existed since the 1870's. Founded in 1900, Lionel made the first battery-operated electric train, which came complete with everything needed to assemble the dry cell battery: two Ball mason jars, two strips of magnesium and a bottle of sulfuric acid. "Very child-safe," Mr. Tobias said dryly.  Battery-operated trains soon eclipsed windup technology and as more American homes gained electricity, more train sets were plugged in. Competition among manufacturers led to differences in the train sets, making them incompatible but spurring demand. Some models ran on two tracks, others on three. They were also made in different sizes, or gauges, which corresponded to the distance between the outer rails. They have designations like standard, O, N and HO, for half-O, the smallest.  Materials varied, too. Most produced before 1938 were pressed tin, and a few were dye-cast metal. After 1945, trains were made of pressed tin, dye-cast metal or plastic, and Lionel even made a few in Bakelite. Lionel also produced a paper train in 1943, having suspended production of metal trains between 1942 and 1945 to help the war effort. Some 1950's model trains are aluminum.  Over almost a century, trains now considered vintage were mass produced in enormous numbers to reach a wide audience. More than 90 percent of what is on the collectibles market as vintage -- that is, produced before 1969 -- trades for affordable prices, dictated by ample supply. Some dealers complain that the market for nonmint, moderate-quality toy trains and paraphernalia is oversupplied compared to demand, leading to artificially low prices.  At the top of the market, the supply-demand curve seems to maintain a balance, Mr. Stout said. Elderly collectors or their families are selling extensive collections of extremely high-quality trains, many in the hands of their original owners. Mint-grade vintage trains are always coming onto the market, Mr. Stout said.  "These guys are passing away, and stuff is being put on the market at just the rate people are buying it, sustaining the prices at the high end," he said.
Claire Wilson Antiques column on high prices garnered for pre- or postwar toy train sets made by major American companies; auctioneers and dealers note trains in boxes, particularly those in mint condition or never opened, bring highest prices; photo (M)