Visiting the La Rue Shempp Collection
by Bradley Kaplan

Looking through various train books one constantly finds reference and photos related to the La Rue Shempp collection of Toy Trains. In the infancy of the toy train hobby, in 1975, a book was written about this collection “Toy Train Treasury Volume 2.”

Since La Rue Shempp’s death his collection has been housed at The Lycoming County Historical Museum in Williamsport, PA. From New York City, Williamsport is about a 3 hour drive. For those of you who would like to work this excursion into your next York trip, Williamsport is approximately 2 hours from there.

Lackawanna handmade Lionel FM Prototype	Dual Motor Lionel GG1 Prototype
Lionel GP Prototope	GG1's plated in different types of finishes, Clear F3s, the GP7 prototype and the FM prototype

The La Rue Shempp Collection is one part of the museum. The museum collection ranges from Native American arrow heads to antique fire equipment. So if you bring family members who are not interested in trains, they will find other exhibits to keep themselves busy.

When you enter the museum, you are directed down a staircase into the basement where you are overwhelmed with all the trains.

Lionel #101 Trolley	Lionel #1 Trolley
Lionel #1910 Engine	Lionel #8 Trolley
Lionel Standard Gauge

The initial view of all the trains is defiantly overwhelming. Since this is not the only exhibit in the museum, it is not crowded. In fact when I visited the museum, for 2 hours, there was no one else in the train exhibit. A stark contrast from the crowds often found at other well known venues.

Some of the many display cases of the Shempp collection

One problem with the display is that pieces are not well organized. Many times you will find common Lionel MPC pieces blocking prototypes. One of the biggest complaints which I had was that the famous hand made Lackawanna FM prototype had a direct view of the mesh vents blocked by a cabinet support!

Before going to the museum, it may be a good idea to make a list of all the prototypes and other significant pieces you want to see, lest you may leave the museum and realize you missed something important.

The "Brute" 381 prototype of the Lionel 381	The Ives Prosperity Limited set running through an Ives Glass dome
Standard gauge display that includes some Lionel pieces as well as Ives	Lionel 203 armored tank

Lionel prototypes included the hand made Lackawanna FM, a dual motor GG1 (made from a single motor 2332), a Southern Pacific FM paint sample, a Union Pacific GP7paint sample and my personal favorite, the Standard Gauge prototype for the 381 often referred to as the “Brute” for its massive size.

The Lackawanna FM was fascinating. It has a very hand-built look that can not be conveyed in photographs. Though it exactly matches the 1954 Lionel catalog photo. The 2332 GG1 with dual motors was not as interesting as it sounds because in reality you can not tell the difference between this and a regular 2332. The Brute 381 was impressive as it is was originally going to pull the state set. This prototype had a finished look to it. It had a tab construction which makes one wonder how much tooling Lionel did make for this piece.

Other unique post war items include Clear Post War Santa Fe F3s as well as several GG1s where the metal was plated and then factory stamped and stripped.

Pieces like the Jersey Central FM almost felt like they were common items in comparison to the rest of the collection.

Of interesting note was a set of the common Lionel Santa Fe F3s. This AA (dummy/powered combo) rates only a TCA “good” in condition. It can be speculated that La Rue Shempp felt he had everything, and someone said “La Rue, where is your Santa Fe F3” and La Rue considered it such an easy find that he probobly figured, why waste the money buying a top of the line piece.

The collection also has a very fine Ives collection including a display of the revolutionary for the time, ball bearing motor drive system of the 1134. There is also an impressive collection of early standard gauge, Dorfan, American Flyer, Marklin, Bing; the list goes on and on and on. It is well worth the trip for any train enthusiast. Unfortunately due to glass protecting the displays, the pictures for this article did not come out as clear as would be liked, but they are more then adequate to give you a good idea about the collection.

Some of the more personal touches in the collection included a Lionel 752 M10000 set repainted for the "Shempp Lines."

The exhibit also has two operating layouts. One an o-gauge layout that has tinplate accessories and the other an HO layout.

The Lycoming County Historical Museum is located at 858 West 4th Street, Williamsport, PA. 17701. Their phone number is 570-326-3326 Call for hours. There is an admission charge.

Other non train museum exhibits