I was just surfing my way around the web looking to see what was available on the web–trying to find a locomotive that I could set up and use at the train club. They have DCC and I heard the DCC sound for the first time, so I was looking for a good deal on a Broadway Diesel. So i tried Frugal. And there was a guy in Ohio that had a Broadway Pennsylvania BLI E-7 A–for $152.99. The best I’d seen was $202.95 and I would have had to pay tax on it as well as shipping.
Then as I was checking out, I looked at the seller’s other auctions. And he had this cute little 4-4-0 from IHC. As most of you know, I’m looking to put in an 1880’s N CA Forrest line. Anyway it was only $42.99 and get this it has a decoder installed. I can’t tell from the picture, but it might be a coal car instead of a wood tender, but I have a plan for that.
I know you’re thinking, “Don’t that boy ever learn?”
Some good dealers
Some not so good deals - higher than competition
Some getting rid of previous ‘dogs’
‘As Is’ merchandise. If it doesn’t run, can you fix it?
I find some modeler’s bidding over market price, or high ‘Buy Now’ on new items. Discontinued items - yes.
That is the turn-of-the-century (as in twentieth) 4-4-0 you have pulled up pictures of before. As I mentioned, a tender is a tender and the only difference is whether the piece of plastic in the back is filled with fake plastic coal or fake plastic logs–it is the stack that is the difference (woodburners had longer, balloon-shaped stacks.)
A “coal car” is not the same as a tender. A tender is a car stuck behind a steam locomotive that carries mostly water, along with a fuel like wood, coal or oil. A “coal car” is typically a hopper car intended to carry coal as freight to be shipped, rather than as locomotive fuel.
Are you really, really sure that you can’t bear to put in a 1920’s line? It seems like you prefer the more modern steam anyhow. The way things are, it is unlikely you’re going to find too much in an 1880’s pattern that is DCC ready.
Or you could get this locomotive and just run it on your 1880’s era line. Admittedly it would be a bit like building a World War II diorama and having Huey helicopters on it, but, heck, it’s your layout.
You know Jetrock, I could hear you saying that in my head just after I pulled the trigger on it.
My son has the Hogwart’s. I’m going to have the MDC 2-6-0. I wanted my daughter to have something to run. We’ll paint it up fancy.
I remember you saying that IHC only makes post 1900 steamers to. Still maybe I can find a stack that works. Maybe I get a turntable set up and I can hide that 4-4-0 inside. Heh-heh.
On the Standard Hobby site, look under “Limited Production Items”. They list the Broadway items
there… although, for some reason, the prices do not reflect the sale prices. Dave
I was noticing that the last update was on 9/4/04 or some-such. Having a small-one man e-business, I know how hard it is to keep updated. (Though his database is not where near as big.)
If you scroll down on the site you will see a link for their Model Railroader ad. Click the link to
view the ad. Look under Broadway Limited and you will see:
So, are you going to get that little AT&SF 4-4-0 in the picture? It looks like an oil tender to me, at least as far as I can tell. Just a thought–if you want to see how Hollywood ‘back-dates’ a locomotive for a movie, get ahold of a copy of the Charles Bronson film “Breakheart Pass” and see how they ‘back-dated’ a 1915-era 2-8-0 to the 1870’s. It’s a hoot. A stubby little diamond stack on a big, chunky steamer, but somehow it works–in an endearing sort of way. Actually, on my rr, which is set in California during WWII, I have a couple of 1880-type 2-8-0’s that I built as MDC kits. Do I use them? Yah, I use them as ‘movie’ trains, for when Hollywood decides to come up into the Sierras and film a western. You might consider the MDC 2-6-0 as something like that, if you’re really more interested in 20th-century steam. Hey, guy, we can ALWAYS find some excuse for running whatever we want! Go for it.
Tom
Yep! It’s in the online MR ad at the bottom of Standard Hobbies web site. Spacemouse! Man, you are an absolute hoot! [(-D][(-D][(-D] Hey, so you didn’t get the rock bottom price on the diesel. Even at $153, you still did BETTER than the $202.95 you saw on that other site!
I’m not familiar with Frugal. Is this BLI diesel brand new, out of the box? Has it been run by this guy in Ohio and now he wants to sell it? Is this puppy just DCC-ready or fully outfitted? Are you now going to have to purchase a decoder to go with it?
…which only leads to…
Now that you’ve joined a MRR club that runs DCC…and you’ve purchased your first presumable “DCC-ready” (if not “DCC-equipped”) BLI locomotive - with sound! (hence, your inquiry from an earlier post you made today)…are you now in the market for or will you need to purchase a DCC system or throttle in order to run your diesel on the club layout? Now, there’s a whole new batch of questions for you to mull over in your head. Keep those posts coming…
I know that some things seem so obvious to you that I look like an idiot for not considering them. But I have never seen a copy of Model Railroader nor would even know where I can go to purchase one. And if I had clicked one the ad here the first time I saw it–the day after Christmas, when I decided to jump a hobby before my son would go back to watching Sponge Bob all day, it would be weeks before my first copy arrived. So even if I wanted to look in a Model Railroader…
Yesterday, when joined a local MRR club, they told me of a hobby shop about 40 miles from my house. Maybe they’ll have a copy there. I’ll look when I go.
But on the other hand, next week when I go to my first meeting as a member, I’ll have a DCC with sound locomotive that fits in with their motif. I bought the cheapest one I could find–turns out my ignorance cost me $13. I can live with that.
My son who when with me to visit the MRR club spent the whole time running around the layout, watching the trains go into a tunnel , then running around to the other side of the wall, to watch it come out… This is the first time I have ever found somethng that my son was intersted in that I could particiate with him–ever.
So if you think I am jumping into this way too fast, I am. I moving just as fast as I can. I try every day to bring home something new to keep my son’s interest while I build him–and me–a layout. First a 4x8 EZ track, with piece bought a little here and a little there off eBay.—My Tech II 1400 and my SPDT switches arrived yesterday–and each night we try the new things. I just have to keep his interest while I get a larger layout down with track down that will run his train.
Quite frankly there is much more involved than a measley $13.
Tonight, I brought my daughter to my computer tonight and showed her the IHC that I threw in on impulse. I told her that
In Cowboy Action shooting, you can either dress up as authentic or you can dress-up as B-Hollywood. I know I am throwing this together. I’ll upgrade it as I go along, but frankly my kids don’t know or care if it is authentic. Heck, as long as Hogwarts is a part of the layout…
Yeah, I bought both the locmotives. The guy I bought it from is a dealer. I now have two DCC trains and a just purchased Tech II analog controller. The Broadway is NIB with the Quantum sound. The 4-4-0 is a Premier that has has a DCC decoder installed so both are ready to go. I don’t know what the situations are with the trottles, but they seemed to be all over the place in brackets about the club. I’m sure I can borrow for the time being.
I am going to start mulling over the DCC for the home though–but my pocket book has ahd enough shock for a while. I think I’m still going to move on the MDC Mogul 2-6-0 because it is still the onlything out ther I’ve found that truly fits my layout theme. I’ll wait to convert it to DCC until the home DCC is in place. It will be “my” train, while my son has his Hogwart’s Express and my daughter has her inherited 4-8-4.
The next thing will not be DCC, it will be passenger cars. I need three sets right away. I need at least 3 for the BLI E-7 A, I just got. I need 3 or so 34’ woodsided Overlands for my daughter’s 4-4-0, and get this. She doesn’t want her 4-8-4 to be seen pulling freight. She wants that to pull passenger cars as well.
SpaceMouse: Not sure if you have yet encountered the concept of “freelance” model railroads, where folks essentially make up an imaginary railroad in a real place, or a real railroad in an imaginary place, or an imaginary railroad in an imaginary place.
I figure, heck, if part of your layout makes a jump in the space-time continuum to Hogwarts, it would be perfectly appropriate to populate your layout with the big chunky later-era steam you enjoy and still have a town that, due to some sort of scheduling error, just happens to be stuck in 1885. Or maybe nobody has worked up the heart to break it to the folks down there in that remote li’l town that it’s actually 1929 or whatever. Or consider the suggestion of a “movie town” where a production company shoots a Hopalong Cassidy type serial.
The Overtons would still be used on a backwater branch line as late as the 1920’s, they’d just be rattly and ancient.
Don’t bother decorating a 1920’s 4-4-0 to resemble a Victorian engine. It just won’t look right.
It is actually pretty common, and used to be more so–do a search for the “Gorre & Daphetid”, probably the classic example of a “freelanced” railroad built by one of the masters, John Allen. (Note: The railroad name is pronounced “Gory & Defeated.”
