Summary

The narrator of the story is Leo Banskoff, a Jewish collector and dealer of vintage toys. He is largely successful due to a bumbling absentminded professor persona he uses when dealing with customers, but he is actually quite savvy and financially successful. Leo receives a call from a business associate tipping him off about the possible location of a valuable toy train, the titular “Under Graham Railroad Box Car Set” (6). The associate sends along an old black and white photograph for proof; it features an African American boy holding the train.

The Under Graham Railroad train was created by Horace Smith, of Smith & Wesson weapons, for Robert E. Lee as a gift for Lee’s five-year-old son Graham. Shortly after the train arrived, the Civil War broke out and Lee was called away to lead the Confederate Army...