U. of Akron puts train collection on auction block

By CAROL BILICZKY

Akron Beacon Journal

AKRON

When the University of Akron bought Quaker Square in 2007, a valuable hoard of railroad memorabilia came with it.

Now collectors will have a chance to get their hands on some of it.

UA will auction off tens of thousands of items divided into more than 1,300 lots Saturday at the former shopping and entertainment complex in downtown Akron.

The train collection once was the heart of the complex that opened as a tourist mecca in 1975. The shops, restaurants and bars in the former oats factory were decorated with model trains and actual train equipment, plus memorabilia.

“When people come here, that’s the first thing they ask: ‘What happened to the trains?’” said Mike Szczukowski, the UA materials handling director who is overseeing the sale.

UA already has had two tag sales of Quaker Square hotel furniture, decorations and memorabilia, the last of which in June generated about $40,000, he said.

Saturday’s sale offers such one-of-a-kind items that UA decided to hold an auction.

Auctioneer Paul Wingard will sell off the items from Quaker Square’s basement via camera. As many as 1,000 bidders will watch the proceedings from first-floor cameras, Szczukowski said.

The highlight probably will be the miniature railroad buildings, people and scenery made in the 1940s and 1950s by train enthusiast Mack Lowry, who moved his Railways of America Museum on State Road in Cuyahoga Falls to Quaker Square in 1976. His collection was billed as the largest model train display in the world.

The collection was so vast that about half of it immediately went into storage in the 400,000-square-foot complex and never emerged.

Lowry’s widow eventually sold the collection to Quaker Square owner Jay Nusbaum, who in turn handed it over to UA.

The sale also will include towel bars, pipe holders and storage racks from actual trains; six real-size luggage carts, some of them loaded with old suitcases; 20 leather-backed chairs from dining cars; round brass tables from dining cars; train artwork, magazines and advertising memorabilia; two mailbags; and old railroad tools.

The auction will feature more than trains.

Wingard also will auction off models and props handmade for a miniature circus, plus two big-top tents, amusement rides and a wide variety of miscellany.