Leonard Blum PRR M1A 1949

[Carey Williams]

Hello all ..

Leonard Blum attorney and model train enthusiast, collector and dealer in Cleveland offered a PRR M1A kit or RTR in O scale , earliest ad MR January 1949. Boiler is a one piece casting in aluminum, chassis bronze , big K&D #4 motor , cast aluminum tender . The engine is on the big side of 1/4" and it towers over the Scale Railways model from the late 30's. It's bell it so tall ...had to do a bit of modification under the bridge ...so tallest thing that has run in the layout .. it seems to be happy running slowly ..growling away as she goes ...it will also go like a bat out of hell .. and growl louder ... please see link for action packed video footage .

Blum did some importing later both in O and HO gauges ....Blum was a major O scale dealer of some very fine pieces over the years based on his ads . The M1A was expensive at the time .... may account for the lack of abundance of them today.
Cheers Carey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiFtTu6j_Ps

loco 2019.jpg (1.43 MiB) Viewed 8319 times

tender.jpg (1.18 MiB) Viewed 8319 times

[J. S. Bach]

I remember the Blum ads. Could the one in your photo be 17/64?

[Carey Williams]

Could be close to 17/64ths ...Blum knew / worked with / ...Lee B Green MR 17/64ths back in the MI Loco / Mini Scale days ... the M1 is a aluminium casting like the Mi Loco engines .... so there are comparisons that can be drawn .. Blum and Green were both in Cleveland ... the Blum engine is a good 1/2 longer than the Scale Railways Models engine ...please see link for comparison photos
https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/194 ... 9393258555

Both run well .. ..or good enough for me

Cheers Carey

[De Bruin]

awesome M1A Carey
not to stray too far here, but here's a Blum's Hobby House catalog from 1967, prices look good until you index them for inflation
The USH Streamlined J3A would be $1660 nowadays, likewise that 4 car cast Alexander '38 LW Broadway set? $3800 (yikes)
The listings are interesting though, especially that custom built Reading 2-8-0 (appropos to our adjoining thread) also the Lobaugh, Icken, Scalecraft etc.







(can you tell i'm procrastinating mowing my yard?)

[bob turner]

You could walk there from the Burke-Lakefront airport.

[Carey Williams]

Wow thank you for posting Blum's for sale list ..I've only seen the ads .... I'll take the set of Alexander and Pomona cars ...
Fisher cars were bringing 100+ 50 years ago !!!!!!

Inflation adds way to much reality to the pricing ..... the best time to buy O scale ...is today .... bargains galore...

I like Blum's descriptions of the runners.....runs like a kitten and fast as a scared rabbit. Icken articulated rated for 100 car drag ...

You can never go wrong with an Icken ....add some oil and they go and are happy about it

Blum had an O scale layout , there were photos in one of the magazines...

[Dennis Holler]

Interesting piece of paper over on the Binns Road web site under the Mi-Loco tab.... Nice ad for a PRR M1... so maybe that is the origin of the Blum M1A.. Who knows...

http://www.binnsroad.co.uk/railways/miloco/index.html

http://www.binnsroad.co.uk/railways/miloco/1935i.jpg

[Carey Williams]

Yes the Blumm M1 was to be the 3rd MI Loco by Lee N Green .
Green and Blum knew each other ..so postwar Blumm decides to produce the M1 ...it is huge ....tallest O scale loco O own .
Sales were very poor ...