Turner Auctions + Appraisals is pleased to present The Armond Conti Collection of Model Trains, Part 1, on Saturday, March 12, 2022, at 10:30 am PST. Featuring over 250 lots from the estate of a Northern Californian who collected trains for over 75 years, the sale presents a variety of fine, distinctive, and desirable pre-war and post-war train offerings – some new old stock, some limited editions, some unused, and some with original boxes. These include diesel and steam locomotives, numerous sets and groupings, and a wide selection of train cars and related lots, such as copter, crane, ore, and fire cars; and a coal loader, snowplow, and ballast tamper. Some accessories are also available, including track, switches, turntables, a transformer, and platforms. Among the manufacturers are Lionel, MTH, 3rd Rail, K-Line, Atlas, Williams, KMT, Right of Way Industries, and others, plus TTOS (Toy Train Operating Society) models. Most are O gauge.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Armond Conti attended St. Ignatius High School and graduated from San Jose State in Industrial Technology. He met his wife Chris in the late 1950s, when they were both audience members of the popular radio show of Don Sherwood, who billed himself as the “world’s greatest disc jockey.” In 1964 the Contis and their then-three children moved to Livermore, California, then San Jose, where Mr. Conti worked as a nuclear engineer at General Electric for over 35 years, until he retired.
Armond Conti collected model trains for over 75 years, introduced to a lifelong passion around age 4, with a Christmas present from his parents. He continued to build and enhance his collection through the years, adding top-quality model trains from train shows and online sources. Perhaps no surprise as an engineer with an interest and skills in mechanics and technology, he also began to repair model trains for others, working after his day job at Bill’s Train Station in San Jose for over 15 years. He also set up an 18’ x 18’ shop in his backyard to pursue this aspect of his train hobby. His train layouts burgeoned as well, increasing as his homes got bigger: first at the top of his San Jose garage, where the layout platform hung down two feet from the ceiling and Mr. Conti would stand on a ladder to work on it. Later, when Mr. Conti moved to a nearby town, his train layout expanded to one-third of the basement of the family’s large and spacious new home.
Through the years, Mr. Conti enjoyed ‘train chasing’ with fellow train buffs, and visiting the Tehachapi Loop near Los Angeles, an engineering feat completed in 1876, where he would go watch trains with his son Mike and others. As Mike said, his dad liked trains because they were “big, noisy, and kind of cool.” These traits were shared with Mr. Conti’s other lifelong hobbies – muscle cars and World War II airplanes.
Now, with Mr. Conti’s passing, the family has decided to part with the collection for several reasons: no one has the same love of trains that Mr. Conti did, the family has other interests, and the model train hobby takes up a lot of space. Fellow enthusiasts who share Mr. Conti’s passion for model trains are sure to benefit from and enjoy the astute rewards of collecting for over seven decades.
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