APPRAISER: You brought me a train, and this was your train.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Now, tell me how you got this train. You got it for Christmas?
GUEST: Christmas in...I think it was 1957. I have two younger sisters, and the three of us got this train. My older sister got dancing shoes and a dancing suitcase.
APPRAISER: It's pretty remarkable condition.
GUEST: It's been in the box for probably since a week after that Christmas. It got put away because we didn't have a family room or a toy room. I can only remember playing with it that Christmas. Then, when my parents passed away, I found this train in the box in the attic.
APPRAISER: That's amazing. Well, let me tell you a little bit about this train. In the mid-'50s, Lionel trains were not selling that well. Some people think it was because kids were into space toys, with Sputnik and all this kind of stuff, so Lionel was looking for ways of expanding their market, so they decided, "Oh, let's make a train for little girls."
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: So they made this amazing train. It's basically just like their other trains, only they did these wonderful pastel colors to appeal to the little girls, but it seems like it didn't appeal too much because you didn't get to play with it too much.
GUEST: We didn't play with it very much.
APPRAISER: It was not a successful venture on their part, so these sets are quite rare. What's great is you have all the original boxes, as we can see. You have the original instruction sheet right here. At auction, this set would probably sell for, depending on how well it could clean up, between $7,000 and $9,000.
GUEST: Oh, wow! That's exciting.
APPRAISER: It's an amazing set. I think it's the first one we've seen here on the Roadshow.
GUEST: Cool.
APPRAISER: And it's really great to see it with the original little girl owner.
GUEST: It was me.
