Had to go to Indianapolis today to pick up a piece of furniature we ordered that finally came in. Then headed to my favorate hobby shop, Train Central, while we were down there. This shop is great for getting in estates of both newer and much older trains included brass and all scales other than G. In the display case was this beautiful, near mint in the box Gem models by Guild of Japan PRR M1b mountain, even has all the original packing material and warranty card for $225. Runs smooth and quiet despite no attention yet to the gear box or lubricating this ancient import. Amp draw was .5 running and 1.0 at full stall, not bad at all. Headlight even is lighted and directional, not something found on most brass imports but was common on Gem imports back then. I also found and bought a nice wood kit of a wood side head end reefer with CV sprung trucks, nicely built and painted for PRR. Both from the same estate. I highly recommend stopping by this shop if your in the area, you never know what you will find and it changes constantly as things sell and more collections come in. Mike the Aspie
One very nice aspect to buying these not so used models is the preservation aspect. Somebody took the time and care to select and buy the model in the first place. It is a good thing when a LHS guy develops the expertise to recognize the value of and then acquire these models that might otherwise be lost.
To stumble upon one randomly at the LHS is a great feeling.
I have several instances. A brass consist of early 1900 “wood” passenger cars very nicely painted and decaled. A soon to be classic Rapido Canadian set complete with souvenir accessories (although it looks like Rapido will re-issue the parts of these sets) and some pretty nice plastic model rolling stock manufactured to high standards of detail like cabooses and boxcars, all currently not available.
Thanks to the skills and reputation of the people at my LHS these were available to me when I re-entered the hobby after a lengthy absence. In fact, all of these models were built in that interim hiatus in my participation. Without the LHS I would never have known about what I had missed.
It’s nice to find items like this and give it a home. Makes you wonder how much run time it has had over the years. I can see the siderod bolts/screws/crankpins are a bit chewed out.
Look at that that rear axel/wheel/journal on the front tender truck. Something does not look right.
She has pretty good wheel wear but side rod wear is minimal. I have her torn down on the bench for a full service and maybe update to a can motor I have on hand. The chassis free wheels on a plate of glass with zero binds, so despite the wheel wear, its very free rolling. It looks like someone used to small of a screw driver at one time on the side rod screws. I have dressed them with a jewelers file now, so they look much better. I love early brass and am always looking for more to buy, especially PRR stuff. Mike
Have you ever LIGHTLY tapped with a very small hammer the out of placed screw head/slot metal back in place? Doing this only when the screw head/slot metal is deformed with a screwdriver, and not missing.
I’m Just thinking, Having that much wheel ware and still in her ‘‘original dress’’.[:)]
It doesn’t phase me, minor issues like buggered up screw slots from previous owners is just part of the models history. And easily cleaned up a bit with a jewelers file. Some seem to forget how old these are, this one dates from 1961, lots of water under the bridge since then. With the plating wore thru so that brass is showing on the driver tread, lots of scale miles as well. With a new Namiki coreless motor, she will just crawl right now. The only thing I cannot do well with brass is paint it nicely. That I do need help with.
If someone buys a really cool vintage Brass Engine and runs it down the track before a full Inspection and that Tender loses an axle, well that person may just wish he found that problem first.
No worries, I have owned, enjoyed and tinkered with brass since I was 15 yrs old and I am 48 now. I had shifted all of my locomotive fleet to all brass before I was 20. The tinkering and tuning of them is half my enjoyment in the hobby. I do it for others and a couple hobby shops when they get in a piece needing attention, remotoring or DCC install. I just dont use DCC myself, but that may change here shortly. The Namiki really needs DCC to preform at its best and sound would be a nice upgrade. Mike
Thats a good looking Mountain! The president of the old local train club, now closed up and he has passed on, had one of the Knapp/Bowser cast brass Mountains. That thing ran dead silent with its original open frame motor and could pull a house down. But had zero coast, kill the power and it would slide to a stop if not stop instantly. I built a Bowser PRR M1a Mountain years ago, ran it all the time at that local club, was a great puller. I superdetailed a Bowser PRR N5C caboose for the rear of my train, antenna kit and all. Now I just want a brass N8 or N5c with the antennas on it. Not sure I have the patience to detail out the Bowser kit anymore. I do need to add the antenna to the tender on my M1b however. Mike
When I was a teen, the founding president of Scale Rails Of Southwest Florida had a Bowser 4-6-6-4 that he built from a kit that was the best running steam locomotive that I had seen up to that time.
I built several Bowser kits in my teens, including a Challenger that I paired with a Kemtron brass tender that I also built from a kit, a PRR M1a Mountain and a H10 2-8-0. Shortly after, I bought my first brass and slowly sold/traded off the non brass engines to buy more of the brass ones.
