I’ve pretty much decided that when it comes to locomotives and rolling stock, for reliability’s sake, I need to stick to brass. Thirty-five years of tampering with locomotive kits and never having anything run satisfactorily has taught me that I should stop, NOW. My recent acquisition of an old but box-stock NWSL Dunkirk has been revelatory- once I greased the drivetrain, the thing ran like a Rolex. Slicker than a greased weasel though a culvert. So, I’m going to stick to R-T-R brass.
Fortunately for my pocketbook, I model in HO, I prefer tiny little prototypes, and I don’t need a whole lot of them. Sub-20 ton geared steam and four-wheeled enclosed-cab diesels and electrics turn my crank.
What I would really, really, REALLY like to see would be a brass, R-T-R, General Electric 25-tonner in HO standard gauge, HOn3, and HOn30. I think I’d be good for a couple, if not all three. To my knowledge, it hasn’t been done yet, though Flying Zoo’s HO 16-Ton electric and Grandt’s styrene HO/HOn3 25-tonner (which I own-I loaded the cab with lead shot and it’s still way too light) suggest that it wouldn’t be that much of an engineering challenge.
What would you like to see come out of your favorite color of foam-padded box? Post it here. Maybe some of importers read this board. You never know…
IF I win the lotto, (food and shelter and supporting the government) are my first priorities) then I would demand a C.P.R. 4-8-4 “Northern” K-1-a # 3100 , if not possible
a C.P.R. “Hudson” H-1-b 4-6-4 ---- NOT a “royal”. in HO, hey! if I’ve got the big coin, why not “O” scale too. By the way here we go again: plastic vs brass.
Well, the only advanage I can see to having all metal on a loco woud be to improve weight-to-driver pressure for traction. If they look and pull the same, but the plastic costs around half as much, I would spend less and get more of something else.
Addtionally, why should brass be any better than normal die-cast construction? Once either loco is painted, it will look like and perform as the other. One can be had for a heftier price, and what would be the incentive to do that?
More variety- it costs less to tool up for a small run of formed and cast brass than for a large run of injection-molded plastic or die-cast zamac, and that’s why we see so many esoteric prototypes modelled in brass, in small runs. Yes, they cost more, but their appeal lies in the odd prototypes that are available.
Durability- brass steps, grabirons, handrail stanchions, and whistles just aren’t going to break or come off as easily as the corresponding parts in styrene. Finer free-standing details can be modeled, and they can survive several years of cavalier handling.
Weight- brass makes for a huge difference in tracking stability in the sizes of models I prefer. I can literally blow my styrene Grandt HOn3 25-tonner off the tracks with my lungs. Somehow, I think an all-brass frame and superstructure would be quite a lot heavier. Brass vs styrene/die-cast weight is much less a factor for mainline-sized locomotives, though.
I am not anti-plastic and die-cast; they just haven’t worked for me. Neither did I intend for this to become a debate over elitism and cost. Just a brass wish list for those with such wishes, that’s all.
I would buy good running “smaller” motive power.NYC 0-6-0.up to 4-6-2s.I now have enough Mikados,Hudsonsand have a couple of Nigaras comming.they look great but take up a lot of space on my railroad
You can pick up a nice, older Alco brass NYC B-11 for around $200. They pop up on Ebay about one a month. The B-11s are one of the nicest Alco brass engines released, with can motors and NWSL (or Kemtron) gear towers. I’ve got one for the P&E, and it’s a great little engine.
That said, if I HAD to pick a few engines that will only see the light of day in brass, my picks would be:
TP&W 4-8-4
IC low-drivered 4-6-2
NKP class R-1 4-6-0
NKP class K-1 4-6-2
Any number of NYC/Big Four heavy 2-8-0s
More road-specific steam-era cabooses.
M.O.M.: Just a footnote on your comment @ brass, I just went to a website that sells ( and guarantees) used brass locos to see about cost, a Sunset PRR 0-4-0 A-5 for $275.
A pfm E-2 4-6-2 C&NW for $275. and a WSM 4-4-2 for $185, now to me these prices are sort of reasonable but certainly not unreachable, maybe a few less beers and smokes. Now, there also were $1500.00 locos there too, so I guess it’s completely up to the individual. Some of these locos were real beauties.
Well if reliable operation is what you want, come on up to S scale.[:D][:D]
Actually, I think there has been a lot of improvement in all scales over the last few years.
What I would like to see in S is a boxcab deisel like MDC makes. Plastic is fine for me.
Aside from cost and radius restrictions, brass would be fantastic. It makes for a heavier , less delicate locomotive. The only reason we prefer plastic is because it’s actually attainable.