I have two things that I am constantly searching for. My “Holy Grail” is a HO scale brass model imported by Hallmark of Santa Fe motor car M122. I had an opportunity to purchase one at auction several years ago at a decent price, but I balked. I have regretted that decision ever since. I peruse eBay, io.groups HO selling groups, BrassTrains.com, Trainz, Facebook marketplace and online auctions in search of M122.
The significance to me is that this motorcar ran the last passenger train from Brady, TX to Brownwood, TX sometime in the 50s. The M122 was transferred to Paris, TX in the mid 1960s where it served as a switch engine.
The other thing I am looking for is Plano Model products #085 etched roof walks for Athearn 54’ covered hoppers. Plano has discontinued them. I may have found a replacement yesterday from OMI; I ordered 12, we’ll see if the vendor fills the order.
A model I’m definitely on the lookout for but am not necessarily in too much of a hurry to get since my layout likely can’t support it just yet is a Rock Island R67, their 4-8-4 Northerns. The CRI&P had the largest fleet of Northern locomotives in the USA and the third largest fleet in the world behind Russia and CN. Aside from that, they’re GORGEOUS and it’s a shame none of them were preserved.
I generally try to keep up with new releases of HO equipment but somehow these B&O 'Wagon-top" N-34 covered hoppers from Spring Mills Depot. They apparently showed up in 2016 or thereabouts.
I recently located two that were offered on eBay and, admittedly, I paid dearly for my oversight!
They sure are nice models and I doubt they’ll ever be run again anytime in my lifetime.
I just bought an N-scale Broadway Limited, Reading 4-8-4 locomotive that ran on my club’s layout for the first time today. I’m hoping to turn it into a Leigh Valley Wyoming, because my parents grew up in Wilkes-Berre. The locomotive is close, but the tender will require a lot of work.
Probably the last locomotive I will need for my layout, I have been unable to get. An Overland NYC H-5t Mikado in HO.
Over the years a couple have appeared on eBay. I was outbid every time. One of these days I will get it. For now, the daily Big Four local on my layout will be pulled by a USRA Light Mike, with an H-5t’s short tender (imported as a separate item by Overland at the same time). I’ve managed to get a couple Big Four-style cabooses and an exact model of NYC 0-6-0 that was used on the former Michigan Central line across the river.
Once my rather lengthy time off work has ended, I will begin construction and two miles of the Pere Marquette and the Big Four will rise again in my basement.
Those have quite a unique profile. They have incredibly long noses. Where in the country or what route are you planning to model? My 4x8 is inspired by Oklahoma, but I’d eventually like to model the Rock Island from Enid to Ponca City as it was in the late 40s/early 50s.
Central Illinois my plan is mid 70s but instead of Santa Fe joining Amtrak they instead kept their own passenger service and used it instead of creating the Super C. So the passenger trains will be pulling 10 packs of TOFC behind the passenger cars were the TOFC cars are equipped with disc brakes and high speed trucks.
Nimbus, those are SD-26s; Santa Fe rebuilt their high hood SD-24s with chopped noses; and re-arranged the air tanks on the roof. I became aware of them on unit Sulfur trains that I saw running between Brownwood and Temple; the line paralleled US 183 that I drove to and from college.
Atlas originally came out with a yellow box SD-24 in the mid 1980s. I bought several, and over the years, I have attempted to make a chop nose SD-26. The cab front with the windshield has always been the problem. Never got it right. Fast forward into the 2000s, and Atlas has made several separate runs of SD-26s. I have two. I have one from each run, and they are nice.
The Santa Fe ordered their SD 24s with low hoods. Atlas when they first made the SD 24 decided not to modify the molds they’re using along with the chassis. At the time people were happy just to get a decent model of the SD 24 to begin with. It’s like the older Atheran locomotives prior to the SD40-2 and later. It was easier to keep the older 1 foot to wide models and cheaper than to refo the molds for scale width hoods. Atheran didn’t fix those models until they introduced the genesis line and retired their blue boxes.
I got lucky and actually found my Holy Grail and had to wait for years to find it at a price that wasn’t going to rob my kids of their college tuition. I got my NWSL Milwaukee L Class 2-6-2. Was able to get DCC into it, it runs forward and backwards really well. I still need to work on the pilot and trailing truck as they will pick every switch. The trailing truck I think is just out of guage and that is why it picks. The pilot is just too light and I am in the process of flattening a tire weight and painting it so that it will give it that little extra.
I’ll second that. I bought one of the Alco Models pairs before I went to college – still have the carbodies to work on. But from the Miracle Castings days, I’ve been repeatedly tantalized and frustrated by availability of ‘shells’. Most recently we were promised corrected castings – Darth Santa Fe actually got his – but whoever-it-was couldn’t keep the long shell from becoming swaybacked as it cured… Lucy pulled the football away again!
I continue to live in hope… but what was it that Mencken said, ‘faith is believing what you know ain’t so…’
