Have only just taken delivery of this beauty the other day. Got to take it out of the box yesterday and only got to snap the locomotive. Didn’t want to unwrap the tender until I got chance to capture it properly - what a monster though! 28" long and weighing in at 20lbs. A Northern Pacific Challenger from the Lionmaster line. I must say, this is a stunning looking locomotive. I apologise for the quality of the pictures, but will get better ones eventually…
Believe it was in the 2004 catalogue - part of a series of 3, inluding this one, a Union Pacific Greyhound version, and another (can’t remember right now which one).
Cost a fair bit to buy an import into the UK here, but opening the box and seeing it justified every single penny spend [:)] - Can’t wait to get it on the tracks and running!
yeah, unfortunately, unless things slips through the net (which was unlikely here given its value) we have to pay VAT on anything imported into the UK from outside. It’s quite hefty at 17.5%, so as a result I paid $600 for the locomotive, $95 for postage, and $145 import tax. Quite a lot of money for it when you think about it, but the locomotive was MINT in an unopened box, never been touched and was $200 below MSRP - the other costs were mine to bear regardless so it’s not too bad.
Can’t wait to get my track out and get it photographed properly with the tender. Will post some shots when I get them.
[B)] Ouch!!! Did the price at least get offset by the weakness in the dollar? In any event, please post some pics once you have that baby on the tracks/
Yeah, that always helps - couldn’t have done it if the dollar was stronger. Came to a total of ~£430 which is about a 3rd of my monthly salary. So with the exchange rate, it comes to about $860. If you consider that if I was over there on vacation, I’d only have paid the $600 for the loco and not have to have paid the shipping and import fees.
Think I’m gonna have to befriend a US citizen to act as a shipping agent to try and reduce the import fees lol [:)]