"New" RCA TRK-12
 

An RCA Victor TRK-12 found it's way to Pittsburgh this week. After much heavy lifting and effort it is in its new home in my basement. I can't believe how heavy these suckers are! This particular TRK-12 sat, bolted to the original shipping crate bottom, unsold in a closed department store for over 70 years. At some point the store had RCA perform the postwar tuner upgrade to adjust the channels from 1-5 to 2-6. When the store closed I suppose they decided it was too heavy and worthless to do anything with. I guess you could say I'm the "original owner" of this set :banana:.

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/...psoxjy7sgt.jpg

I'm so used to seeing vintage sets with moisture damage to the bottoms that I found myself laughing when I saw the bottom of this set.

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/...psukb09m1j.jpg

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/...psbrpx02vc.jpg

I couldn't resist powering the amplifier up with a fused variac, slowly raising the voltage over a couple of hours. The original electrolytics barely gave an audible hum over the next hour or so as I rubbed a coat of wax into the finish and listened to big band favorites through its original 75 year old components. Quite a treat!

Once in a lifetime (if very lucky) find!

Congratulations.

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Congratulations John! Truly the "FIND OF THE CENTURY"

Please make additions to this thread as you make additional discoveries.

Incredible! What a fitting "first use" with the big band music.

Be sure and remember to fill out and mail in the warranty card in the next three months. :D

Holy cow! That set is in unbelievable condition. :jawdrop:

[edit] Does anyone know how long the department store kept that set on the display floor, before they tucked it aside? It's hard to imagine how it stayed so nice being in an abandoned building so many years.

You know that kept going through my head last night! I was hoping to to find an original warranty card and manual hiding inside it somewhere to display with the set.

Zounds!! Is there such a category as "better than museum quality?"

There may never again be such a pristine example of this set. I'm often the first to start replacing components to make a set work as new, but in this case I might be tempted to leave everything untouched. It can only be original once, as the saying goes.

Do you mind sharing how you found this set?

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

How did the store manage to stay empty yet undistrubed for 70 years? That's incredible, look forward to seeing more of it !

My word! a truly jaw dropping find! It is amazing that it could have been sitting undiscovered and undamaged for so long. Congratulations!

jr

Spectacular find! This has to be one of the best, if not the best example in existence!

Do you know if the CRT is still good? Don't see why it wouldn't be.

Hands down, that's the best original example of this classic and historic TV in existence. It was quite a treat just to see the photos! You're quite privileged to be the caretaker of it. Enjoy!

Very rare, beautiful work of wooden art, totally original, and NEW. Absolutely amazing!

Dave

Yah, that's pretty cool..... I think I would not touch anything inside....
If the sound part works, I bet the picture part does too....
Crank that sucker up !

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What a beautiful work of art!

Outstanding! How were you alerted to the set?