arrived late yesterday afternoon and after a through inspection,lubing and oiling this morning i find myself to be just thrilled at the purchase. After giving a good going over found it to be in much better condition than i,d hoped.was expecting to see brass showing through the plating on the drivers…Nope a good cleaning and they look great (after all she"s 53 years old. will need to replace 1 tender step(knew that!)
and a bit of touch up to the paint,which turns out to have been professionally done…was expecting an owner type paint job’ ah nope very very well done.
All this for $495
one thing i was not at all expecting was the inclusion in the box of a hard bound issue of the BRASS TRAIN GUIDE,this for 1st time buyers i guess…Kudos to Dan Glasure of Brass Trains .Com
Excellent looking loco and it certainly was a good price. The Max Gray line HO in general was picked up by Balboa and then later on by Westside and all were built by KTM. The Max Gray O scale line was picked up by USH and those had improved brass castings also. I don’t believe Balboa imported the L105, but did import most of the other locos that Max Gray had started especially the Southern Pacific models. The Max Gray models being much older does not have the finer type of brass castings that the Westside used, but this loco is a standout when painted and probably runs very well. I have a few Max Gray models and they are solid runners and built to last.
I have purchased many locos from Dan’t Trains and his products are excellent. The pictures also are good and helps to determine what the condition is for the model in question.
What a beauty!! I kinda/sorta thought from the photos you published in the original thread that she’d been professionally painted. I remember you saying that 3704 seemed to be a popular number for this gorgeous lady. IIRC, 3704 is one of the few numbers on the Microscale Rio Grande steam loco decal sheet that DOESN’T have to be cut and pasted, lol!
The way the Max Gray/Westside lokies are built, it should give at least another 53 years of good service. Enjoy, my friend, you’ve got a real winner there!
