As old as the history of collecting, there have always been fakes, reproductions and fantasy pieces; we will simply refer to this class of items as “reproductions.” While many of these reproductions were made with the purpose of deceiving, some have been produced by clubs and individuals with the purpose of having a duplicate, where the original was either in a museum, in a private collection or otherwise unobtainable. Ethically, every reproduction made should be marked as such, but this has not always been the practice. It is safe to say that every class of railroadiana has been reproduced, so the caveat of “buyers beware” should be heeded.
There are high and low quality reproductions, with a few “master class” forgeries of some of the most expensive railroadiana. It does take some years of experience and some study of actual reproductions to be able to generally distinguish a real piece from a reproduction. Some reproductions are extremely well made as to fool some of the most experienced collectors.
Part of the mission of RCAI is to educate and share information among railroadiana collectors. In this website, we endeavor to collect and share known information about reproductions of each type of railroadiana. Although we take great steps to insure the accuracy of our data, we observe that errors can occur. We provide the data on known reproductions so that the collector has a baseline to help evaluate a piece for authenticity. It is up to each collector to make their own determination as to the authenticity of a piece.
It is always best practice to buy from reputable dealers with a generous return policy. Whenever possible, it is best to be able to examine a piece in person. Lastly, social media is a great resource to reach out to other collectors to help evaluate a piece.
