Post by jbilbrey on Jul 28, 2024 14:23:26 GMT -8
This was definitely not a "meh" purchase for me but more like "What did I just do?"
Around 3 years ago, I found a "mystery" [to me at the time] HO steam locomotive at a local club in the town that we had just moved to. It was heavy, obviously made out of metal, and was reasonably well-detailed. The only non-brass 2-10-0's I could think of were Mantua/Tyco, Bachmann, and BLI, and I knew I weren't looking at either of those three. The Stephenson valve gear and other details threw me for a loop; I was guessing it was something Western and not a Russian Decapod. My initial thought was AT&SF but a quick Google search ruled it out. My friends were equally clueless on the identity, Still, the club only wanted $20 for it and a Southern Pacific Mogul created from a Mantua Prairie and an unknown brass Vanderbilt tender. I even offered them $20 for just the Decapod and they told me no and that I had to take the Mogul as well. Fine, I gave them a Jackson and walked out with this:
Southern Pacific D-1 2- -0 - before by James Bilbrey, on Flickr
It was only after I got it outside and in better light could I make out Samhongsa and Korea stamp on the bottom of the locomotive and tender. This led to several colorful exchanges between my friends and me when they heard what I paid for the brass locomotive. We all would then forget about it until a friend would find a similar one on Ebay and make a comment about how chunky of a steam locomotive it appeared to be. This isn't directed to the builder and/or the importer. The prototype locomotive was built with 51" drivers and weighed in at 220,000 lbs. compared to the "Russian Decapod's" 50" drivers and a weight of 208,500 lbs.
Now, fast forward to this last Friday and nearly 3 years of procrastination, more than a little researching, and trying to come up with a game plan as to what the best way to approach the project.
Southern Pacific D-1 2-10-0 - in-progress by James Bilbrey, on Flickr
Instead of spending the planned weekend of careful work, I dove into the project head-first and with the plan of getting it done as efficiently as possible. Repairs were made on the fly. Despite how bad it initially looked, the missing parts were limited to the brake rigging and a missing pipe running from a compressor to one of the air tanks. Also, one of the pipes running from under the cab to the injector had come loose and needed fixing. The Sunset Models D-1 now wears a new coat of black paint after a few hours of disassembly, repairs, repainting, coupler replacement, and re-assembly. I need to take it apart once more to replace the tubing between the motor and the gearbox as well as decaling it. However, I now had an infinitely more presentable $10 steam locomotive.
The last bit of humor was that I bought it with my wife present. Up to that point, we had long-standing agreement. I could purchase just about anything railroad-related as long as I didn't bring anything brass in the house. "Yeah, that $10 locomotive I just bought ... Yeah, it is probably worth a bit more than $10."
Around 3 years ago, I found a "mystery" [to me at the time] HO steam locomotive at a local club in the town that we had just moved to. It was heavy, obviously made out of metal, and was reasonably well-detailed. The only non-brass 2-10-0's I could think of were Mantua/Tyco, Bachmann, and BLI, and I knew I weren't looking at either of those three. The Stephenson valve gear and other details threw me for a loop; I was guessing it was something Western and not a Russian Decapod. My initial thought was AT&SF but a quick Google search ruled it out. My friends were equally clueless on the identity, Still, the club only wanted $20 for it and a Southern Pacific Mogul created from a Mantua Prairie and an unknown brass Vanderbilt tender. I even offered them $20 for just the Decapod and they told me no and that I had to take the Mogul as well. Fine, I gave them a Jackson and walked out with this:
Southern Pacific D-1 2- -0 - before by James Bilbrey, on FlickrIt was only after I got it outside and in better light could I make out Samhongsa and Korea stamp on the bottom of the locomotive and tender. This led to several colorful exchanges between my friends and me when they heard what I paid for the brass locomotive. We all would then forget about it until a friend would find a similar one on Ebay and make a comment about how chunky of a steam locomotive it appeared to be. This isn't directed to the builder and/or the importer. The prototype locomotive was built with 51" drivers and weighed in at 220,000 lbs. compared to the "Russian Decapod's" 50" drivers and a weight of 208,500 lbs.
Now, fast forward to this last Friday and nearly 3 years of procrastination, more than a little researching, and trying to come up with a game plan as to what the best way to approach the project.
Southern Pacific D-1 2-10-0 - in-progress by James Bilbrey, on FlickrInstead of spending the planned weekend of careful work, I dove into the project head-first and with the plan of getting it done as efficiently as possible. Repairs were made on the fly. Despite how bad it initially looked, the missing parts were limited to the brake rigging and a missing pipe running from a compressor to one of the air tanks. Also, one of the pipes running from under the cab to the injector had come loose and needed fixing. The Sunset Models D-1 now wears a new coat of black paint after a few hours of disassembly, repairs, repainting, coupler replacement, and re-assembly. I need to take it apart once more to replace the tubing between the motor and the gearbox as well as decaling it. However, I now had an infinitely more presentable $10 steam locomotive.
The last bit of humor was that I bought it with my wife present. Up to that point, we had long-standing agreement. I could purchase just about anything railroad-related as long as I didn't bring anything brass in the house. "Yeah, that $10 locomotive I just bought ... Yeah, it is probably worth a bit more than $10."
