Lionel Trains, Rare 910 Submarine Base accessory. Assembly and running trains! Wow.

An in-depth look at a Rare Lionel Trains 910 Sub base from 1960-1964. These incredibly rare cardboard accessories were available in only 9 un-cataloged outfits. Sets were as follows: X-515NA, X-625, x-676, x-714, 19202-1, 19201-2, 19203, 19311 and 19394.
The sub base also known as the Navy Yard Display contains 10 pieces and must be folded for assembly. Now that the base is 60 years old, those pieces are becoming more challenging to put together without damaging them. So, getting to put one together is a treat but was very treacherous!
We also took advantage of having it put together to run trains around the base, the way it was meant to be back in 1960! Wow!
The episode was done in conjunction with Project Roar, the publisher of the Award winning "Authoritative guide to Lionel Promotional outfits". This publication contains a wealth of information about the amazing outfits Lionel produced in the 1960's. It is available from ProjectRoar.com
These bases rarely come up for sale and are highly sought after by collectors. They are considered truly rare.
If you remember getting one of these sets with the sub base as a kid, I would love to hear from you. If you have a photo, that would be even better.
Please E-mail me at [e-mail]
Part of the Rare and unusual Lionel trains shown on this channel
Thank you.
Brian

[@PopPopsTrainRoom]

another great video, great information wow!

[@BriansTrainRoom]

My pleasure, like a kid in the candy store putting this together with John. Appreciate the comment. Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

PopPops, thanks! We had a lot of fun doing this. Glad you enjoyed. Brian is a joy to work with. Best, John

[@petergulotta8183]

Wow Brian, another incredible video of another product from Lionel that I never knew existed ! I think this video is going to be hard to beat! Keep em coming!

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Thanks Pete. For those who know postwar space and military trains, this one is rare!. Having blast with these videos and I appreciate the support!. More to come!. Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Pete, thanks for the kind words. It was a lot of fun to do with Brian and he has a lot more coming. Enjoy John

[@vincentfleszewski1902]

Another great item. Something I have never seen in before. Thanks Again for the great videos.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

These are super cool and really tough to find. Glad to share this piece of Lionel history with you! Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Vincent, we're glad you enjoyed. I never knew of these of heard of them before I started writing the Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960-1969. I then realized one was shown in the Greenberg Guide to Accessories, but all the outfits they came in were never known until I wrote the book. Brian and I had never seen one put together and running, so we decided to have some fun. Enjoy!!

[@jameslanders4819]

Very interesting video brian and john..I never expected to see one of these.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

That has always been my plan for this channel. Showing you guys the stuff you don't every see!. Appreciate the comment. Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

James, glad you enjoyed!! Brian has done a phenomenal with his channel showing items you just don't see everyday. We've never seen one of these put together let alone running a train....so we had to put this together and run a train. Enjoy, John

[@larryberger9440]

Wow Never knew these items ever existed. Great video and keep informing us all about these unusual things. Be well. and thanks

[@BriansTrainRoom]

My pleasure, this is what I wanted to do with this channel!. Such a cool item and hope you enjoy checking it out!. It was a fun one for me too! Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Larry, glad you enjoyed. We had a blast putting this together and running it. I still have it set up and my son came home the other day and we ran it some more. Brian does and awesome job. Best, John

[@danshobbies123]

One of my greatest finds! 19201, I passed my sub base along to John. Still have the trains but I do kick myself for letting go of the base. 😂

[@BriansTrainRoom]

It is a fantastic set and base. It's in good hands, and has become part of this great episode!. Thanks. Brian

[@danshobbies123]

I knew it was going to a good home. So glad to see this video and see one in action.

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Dan, once again thank you for sharing your sub base with me. It's been well cared for over these years. I'm glad we were able to share it with you in this way. Sorry it took so long to do so. I hope you enjoyed the episode. Best John

[@dwaynebublitz786]

Thank you Brian and John for showing us this rare and important part of Lionel history. Not sure if I would have the guts to put it together much less run trains over and through it. Really fantastic!!

[@BriansTrainRoom]

That is why we did it!. But... it was a little scary, and we were sweating it out through most of it. Just Wow!. Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Dwayne, I’ve did a ton of research on 910s for my book the Authoritative Guide to Lionel’s Promotional Outfits 1960-1969 but had never put one together or run one. I always wanted to do this on a video so when Brian mentioned he was coming by I figured now was the perfect time. Needless to say, yes it was very stressful!! We actually put foam board under the sub base to support the weight of the trains. I also got really nervous when the 6470 almost fell off the track onto the subs. It was well worth it as it was so much fun to see everything up and running. Enjoy!!

[@WA1LBK]

I'm an American Flyer "S" guage guy (my first electric train was a #499 New Haven EP-5 electric freight set at age 5), but I well remember all the Lionel (& Flyer) space & military trains and catalogs from that era. I found this absolutely fascinating! 😃 A lot of the details of the sub base were interesting; the bridge being repainted from yellow into Navy grey, the loading dock & building, the profile submarines. A slightly amusing observation is "how does the water in the submarine basin stay there if the whole basin is tilted?" 😄 On the other hand, when the train was actually running around it, the subs actually "roll with the tide" at their moorings! 🙂 I live about an hour-&-1/2 north of the New London, CT. submarine base (& have visited the USS Nautilus museum sub), so the tie-in as a train accessory is interesting. Not only is it a super-rare find, looks like you guys had to put it a near - Herculean effort to actually get it properly assembled. 😉 Very infesting!

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Thanks and appreciate the comments. I have lots of love for American flyer and there are some truly rare items out there you guys go nuts over! I get it!. Yeah, toymakers rarely get how water works, but as a toy it just does. Love the observation that the subs moved some during running. LOVE that!. We also had a blast! Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Thanks for calling out the details Brain provided on the base that were amazing. We had never assembled one or ran trains with one. I had only seen pictures of them assembled. Brian showed details of the base I never knew were there. The frogman, the painting, the stairs, the loading door, etc. It's not until you put one together that you notice these details. Brian also did a great job with the background of real world sub base. I'll have to rewatch the video to see the subs moving. We're glad you enjoyed the video. John

[@williamsantangelo]

A blast from the past, thank you gentlemen

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

William, Thanks. We're glad you enjoyed it as much as we did doing it. It was a long day/night to put all this together, but Brian and I had a blast.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Such a cool accessory and a blast to play with!. Thank you. Brian

[@Ed-ICE-Berg]

Wow! What an awesome display piece! I can see where that steep grade would frustrate kids trying to run trains on it.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Yeah, hard to put together, but would have been such a neat trackside accessory for the sets. Hard to run trains for long periods of time on it. Brian

[@raysrails2164]

Wonderful brian , that was your greatest video . the space and military trains are awesome .

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Thanks Ray! This one I had the pleasure of working with John and Project Roar and we had a blast putting this together and running trains around it. What an experience, happy to share it with you. Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Ray, Wow, thanks for the kind words. We had a blast doing this and glad you had a blast watching it. It was one of the longest, but most exciting days of my life with trains. Brian is a true professional and joy to work with and I look forward to partnering with him on future videos. Long Live Lionel!! John

[@jrmeindl]

A great history video Brian and John. I'm sure, as you indicated, many were just lost to time or just tossed along the way.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Sadly, I can see so many of these just getting thrown away and lost to time since they had no markings on them and collectors didn't know about them until more modern times. Thanks, Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Glad you enjoyed! Yes, out of a possible 6,338 made (as Brian outlined in the video from my book the Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960-1969), the last two outfits came with either a 910 or 908. The estimate is about 5,000 to 5,300 were actually made. As you can see from the video, they are very fragile and once put together once or twice, as well as you can see the train actually has to be perfectly centered in the tunnels or they get damage, few likely survived one or two playings. A few have shown up still new, unassembled with their envelope, but those are extremely rare. Also, just like with the 908 stations, some retailers may have not provided them with the outfits when purchased. Finally, as Brian said, they did not say Lionel on them and just were discarded. Either way, it's really fun to see one put together and running a trains. Enjoy. John

[@johnandrus3901]

Wow! So cool! The John Medaris era was an interesting time for Lionel. There were so many neat trains and accessories offered. I don't have any, but a few of my friends have some of the military and space cars and trains. An excellent video, as always.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Thanks, the space and military era is criticized often, but some really cool stuff was made during that time for sure. This is one of them!. Thanks, Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

John and Russ, thanks! It was a lot of fun to setup and video. Glad you enjoyed. I did a bunch of research on Lionel in the 1960's when I was writing my book. It was "easy" to sell trains in the 40's and 50's when everybody was buying trains. With Sputnik and the space race in the late 50's and into the 60's, everybody wanted space and military stuff. Slot cars were gaining popularity as were other toys. Lionel had to be creative and change or die. This was just one of the many attempts to do so and I'm personally excited to say that it was a pretty awesome addition to a Lionel train. Very creative and modeled very well after real sub bases of the era. Brian did an awesome job on the background of these and I never seen pictures of them before. Once again, thanks for the great feedback. John

[@paulbervid1610]

A reissue in plastic would be awesome. Great video.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Would be interesting. So much fun getting to work with one of those. Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Paul, great idea. Any reissue would be awesome! John

[@tomshannon7513]

Another cool item I never knew about, great job guys, thank you.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

My pleasure, a little know gem from the early 60's. Thanks, Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Tom, glad you enjoyed! Brian has more cool stuff coming as well.

[@tomtweed123]

Great Video - I wanted to see the Ammo Dump exploded.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Love that, working on an episode about the space and military items that shot rockets and of course their targets. I then will have some great film on the "explosions". Great idea. Brian

[@JosephSadorf]

Hello Brian, FINALLY got around to watching this episode - that was fun and what a challenge - Happy New Year to all - thank you again

[@BriansTrainRoom]

My pleasure, glad you liked it!. Happy New year!. More to come in 2025! Brian

[@patrickgrogan4382]

It would be cool to see a 3D printed version of this and the 908 at some point.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

That would be interesting and a really cool trackside item. B

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Patrick, that would be fun to do. At least it wouldn't be so fragile. John

[@michaelrostine1315]

Sub base is exactly what we need. A big subwoofer underneath the table for realistic proto sound shaking the foundation as a train does.

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Michael, I'll have Brian do an update with the subwoofer below :) I'm glad you enjoyed the video.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

You know, more prototypical sounds and rumbling are a great idea!. Thanks Brian

[@johnfroio4910]

A wonderful video! I’ve always wanted to see one of these, it’s a great postwar item, for sure!

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Thank you, John. These are fantastic and I always wanted to see one in person too. And, I got to put it together and run trains around it! Just awesome! Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

John, glad you enjoyed. Thanks, John

[@richardakajazzyamx9690]

An incredible accessory and very unique! It's not Lionel or O Gauge, but I've found a similar situation with the TYCO HO gauge train sets from the 70's and 80's, with cardstock accessories that are hard to find due to falling apart with age and use. I personally have some of TYCO's original late 1980's Turbo Train sets, which used a slightly modified 440x2 slot car motor running on HO track, and came with some fanciful futuristic cardstock building kits depicting tunnels, cranes, and buildings. I've been lucky enough to find some original, unused kits for both the freight set and one of the passenger train sets, and plan to have them scanned to produce a digital file and allow them to be reprinted for future enjoyment even when any of the originals are far too fragile to use. Perhaps you could do the same with your 910 Submarine Base?

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

It's like the movie Toy Story, it's all about the "box". Trains are plastic and steel, boxes and cardboard are paper and don't age as well. That's what makes everything about this and other hobbies so much fun.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

That is a great story. I love the idea of preserving these for future generations. There are examples of that begin done. Appreciate the comment as well. B

[@rammur1]

❤

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Agree! Thanks, B

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Rammur1, Glad you enjoyed the video. Brian did a great job with this!

[@gszookeeper77]

So cool this survived. How many do you think might actually be left based on production? Have you ever seen one for sale?

[@BriansTrainRoom]

So, while these were made in reasonably quantities, due to their construction and lack of Lionel markings, most were lost to time. I have no real numbers, but I do know of some very large collections that do not have one. I image that less than 10% of the bases produced have survived. B

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Gszookeeper, when researching for my book on Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960-1966, I began tracking these sub bases. Since 2004, I've documented every sale I've known about, detailing their rarity and including photos in my book. These are typically found in two ways: 1. Still included with one of the 9 promotional outfits, often assembled and played with. 2. Sold separately by knowledgeable sellers, usually familiar with my book. I've seen several outfits with 910s sell online and at auctions since 2004. When separated from outfits, they're often discarded due to lack of Lionel markings. Occasionally, pieces of sub bases or instruction sheets appear for sale. Over the years, I've only seen a handful of never-assembled, brand new sub bases. My theory is they were either omitted from some outfits or came from unused sets. Finding the bag they came in is even more challenging. There are multiple variations, and I've only seen 3 complete bags in all my years of collecting. It's a fun but difficult piece of Lionel history to collect. Remember, it's been over 60 years since this came out.

[@gszookeeper77]

​@@ProjectRoarPublishingthanks. I bought the promo set book despite not having a big interest in this era simply due to the level of research. I enjoyed it very much and, having written 5 books myself, know this is always a labor of love - profit in publishing is secondary to passion...lol. Thanks for the reply and for setting the sun base up. Seeing it work as a 3-dimensional unit was very cool. I don't "need" one but was certainly interested in it since seeing it in the book - Zoo

[@hoosierrail3588]

what is one of these worth

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Good question, but I don't really have a good answer for you. Very few have sold over the years and the prices are all over the place. I don't usually talk price because it changes so fast, that it's inaccurate as soon as I say it. I have seen them sell for anywhere between 2K and 8K. Depends on the day and who wants it. Thanks Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Hoosierrail, I cover these in detail in my book the Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960-1969 including pricing. I've kept track of every sub base I've known to sell since 2004 (when I was writing the book) until today. It all depends! Like anything else, condition plays the biggest variable in the range in price. I've seen them sell as low was $2,500 for incomplete or really rough versions all the way to $13K for brand new mint with full mint bag. If finding a sub base it tough, finding bags are really tough. Individual pieces show up from time to time. During an auction, it also depends on who else wants it more. I'm always looking for a good sub base :) Enjoy, John

[@JasonBrown-mx2kk]

We need to get someone to 3d print this so we can have a permanent one

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Agree, but for now, I am just happy I got to mess with on in person. They are cool, and it would be cool to have a copy at least for a kids layout. B

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Jason, that would be really interesting to do. It would definitely be more secure and stable. John

[@strike9716]

lot of stuff going on for just cardboard

[@BriansTrainRoom]

So true, that is what makes this accessory so rare and fragile. It's just not something seen by collectors and that makes it special. Thanks Brian

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Yes, sometimes I feel like I collect cardboard :) The outfits boxes, paperwork and inserts like the 910, 908 and X-625-20 Cardboard Scenic Set are some of the really cool things I researched when I wrote the Authoritative Guide to Lionel's Promotional Outfits. That is what makes this hobby so much fun. Enjoy, John

[@strike9716]

@@ProjectRoarPublishing its an artform all to itself.

[@Skibike69]

Wow. I bet sets like this were what led many kids to lose interest in toy trains forever. Cheap cardboard crap. Honestly not much play value.

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Yes and no. Lionel also had some Pre-war cardboard accessories that are super hard to find today. Figure it was an inexpensive way to add play value to a starter set. It's a pretty impressive piece and most high end collectors can only dream of having one. It what makes this hobby so great, everyone collects and operates these trains differently. Love that. Thanks,Brian. (And kids were falling out of favor with trains because of the space age, slot cars and less travel by rail).

[@garykuipers2696]

I purchased your publication Lionel's Promotional Outfits. The book belongs in every Lionel enthusiasts reference library. It gave me the info needed to identify a set that I received for Christmas during the 1960's. Fantastic publication and great video. 😎🚂🚃🚃🚃✝

[@ProjectRoarPublishing]

Gary, thank you for the kind words!! It means a lot to me and my father. It took me 5 years to write it because I wanted to ensure it was as complete as possible. I traveled the country photographing unbelievable collections of Lionel Promotional outfits. A funny story around 910's is that I created a couple of "monsters". One collector became so obsessed with trying to collect all 9 sub base outfits. He ended up with almost all of them. He built a beautiful display in his house with an assembled sub base on a pedestal under acrylic. It is one of the most gorgeous displays I've seen. Enjoy, John

[@BriansTrainRoom]

Great book and glad you enjoyed the episode!. Brian