Brass C&S Narrow guage Consolidation, what to do.

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I just bought a Brass C&S narrow guage consolidation. My intent was to replace the aged motor, put in a sound decoder and paint, but I discovered that it is one of the very early ones imported by PFM from United in Japan(in the original blue box with paper lining), and am now wondering if the better route would be to just clean it up and polish it (in other words, is it one of those that is better to be left in original condition).
Thanks for your thoughts,
Alfred

2

There are two schools of thought for this sort of issue: are you a collector, or are you an operator? The price of the engine really won’t be affected by whatever conversions you do to it, so long as it’s still true to the prototype engine. That’s because when you put it on the market, you’ve got as good a chance to seel it to another operator as a collector. So long as the model isn’t all that rare and “collectable”, you can even raise the price of the engine by adding a good drive train, extra protptype-specfic details, a quality paint job, sound, etc. The only time I feel someone shouldn’t “mess with” brass is when it’s a “one of five” model.

Ultimately, it’s up to you. You bought the engine with the intent of running the thing on your layout. Why not do it?

3

Makes good sence to me.[#ditto]

4

The early brass especially with open frame motors will not get the price of newer brass with can motors that also tend to run much better. Though older narrow gauge brass seems to hold its value better than older standard gauge stuff I would not be too worried about trying to protect an investment. I have an old HOn3 Balboa C-19. These were and still are beautifully detailed models but notoriously horrible runners. I replaced the motor, tweaked it a little and its been running like a charm for years. I also have a few older remotored Westside C-16s that ran well but even better with new motors. The prices I’ve seen for these older HOn3 locomotives from the 60s are about the same in original condition or with new motors and gears. What the paint jobs look like do not seem to be real big factors either. Re-motor your locomotive, and put in your DCC sound. If the locomotive is finished well and runs good it is probably worth about the same or even a little more than in original condition. Bruce

5

Thanks!, I have my doubts that this one is a “One in five” and will see what happens as I procede with upgrading it.

6

Bash it into a mason bogie.