Maybe he is on vacation ?
He posted on 8/6/09 and it's 9/8/09. Man I wish I could take a month vacation!
By the way welcome to the site.
So.......you need some cheap (dollar wise) Lionel type trains?
I don't know where you live but around here we have junk pickup days and you wouldn't believe the trains (and other stuff) some people just toss out.
My Bro in law works the town dumps with a big front end loader machine and he's all ways bringing home O gauge and HO trains home that people just tossed.
I guess a lot don't know the value of what they are tossing out. If you have them clean up days go and do a little trash picking. The old lady down the street threw away a whole bunch of Lionel stuff when her husband died. Lucky I have a neighbor who walks his dog a hundred miles a day and he picked them out for me. GOOD DEAL and for free.
You can get some good deals on e bay too. Be patience if you don't win there's plenty more being listed. Search for "lots" of items instead of single items too.
Try to find sellers around your area that will meet you somewhere to save on shipping. I do that a lot, we find a halfway point.
Do what the T-Man does here and get stuff that needs fixing and fix it up.
Check out his posts.
I guess you heard of Craig's list. Check out that too I have made some very good deals there. As the seller was moving and just had to get rid of stuff cheap.
Me.......I got a ton of Lionel and O gauge stuff.
But I'm sorry I don't want to part with any. EVEN THE JUNK.

Happy Hunting and Good Luck.