About The John Lemon Model Train Collection

John Lemon's Model Train Collection - themodeltrainstore.com
© themodeltrainstore.com

Welcome to The Model Train Store. This website showcases ‘The John Lemon Model Train Collection’, the biggest model train collection in South Africa, and indeed the African continent. It contains over 4000 items, and has spanned the past 75 years… a true love for model railroading! 

John Lemon has been collecting toy trains since the age of 4. He received his first train set from his dad, Stanley Lemon, in December 1946. This sparked a life-long passion for model railroading.

He first began collecting Lionel, and over the years expanded into Märklin, Fleischmann, Lima, American Flyer, Tri-ang, Hornby, Rivarossi, and Sakai. South Africa didn’t manufacture many items, almost all model trains were imported. This is probably what makes his collection so unique, it spans an array of manufacturers from all around the world.

John Lemon not only has a passion for model railroading, but all things transportation in fact. He is the Historical Advisor to Volkswagen South Africa, and has written many articles[1] and books[2] on the history of various Volkswagen motor vehicles[3]. He is a ‘legend’ not only in the South African Volkswagen context[4], but around the world[5] too!

He has also written many aviation articles[6], and was very involved in the history of the De Havilland Comet and the Rietbok Air Crash in South Africa in 1967.


John Lemon’s Connection To themodeltrainstore.com

John Lemon is my dad, so I’ve grown up with trains around me my whole life. Some of my earliest train memories include sitting on my dad’s knee, paging through books and catalogues, as he would point to an item and I would shout out it’s name with as much excitement as I could muster. In those days, a Caboose was a “Cabooooose” and a GG1 was a “GeeeeGeeee1”.
Making this website has been a labor of love. From taking photos, grading, and listing the items, it’s been a heap of work. My dad is getting on in years, and wanted to part with his collection while he is still able to do so. It’s been wonderful to listen to his stories, ask questions, and find out all the history behind these items.


Sale Of The John Lemon Train Collection

As and when listings are completed, they are added to this website. Obviously due to the vastness of this collection, it’s a long process. All expected listing dates, per manufacturer, are on this website. Please check in regularly, as items are added weekly.

If you are interested in purchasing any part of this collection, please click here to get in touch, and I will email you the purchase procedure. As stated above, this is a very large collection, and because of it’s sheer size, we will be selling items in larger lots, and unfortunately cannot accommodate buyers who are wanting to purchase single items.

Happy model railroading!

Taryn
The Model Train Store


Citations:


Back to HOME