Model Train Journal

Perusal of the internet yielded these hits. Just when I thought the C&LS SP 4-10-2 was the ultimate! This hobby is full of surprises.

https://brasstrains.com/Classic/Product ... -Unpainted

https://brasstrains.com/Classic/Product ... ke-Lifters

Those locos built by Mr. Sofue are really nice.

Dan Weinhold

The FEF2/3 that was sold by BT was the one I showed in the thread about Sofue Bio. I bought it from Larry Sokol maybe 12-15 years ago. It was beautiful, not totally correct, but I've never and I mean never found a model that was totally correct. But, I had a KTM/USA FEF3 from the early 2000's and I decided one had to go. I wish Henry had built some UP models, as I owned one of his SP 4-10-2's for a short time and it was very nice.

Nine thousand dollars?

A student took us to dinner last night - you know, the fifty dollar steak house. On the menu was a $255 steak - not me, man - I can appreciate the finer things in life, but not $255 steaks and $9000 O Scale locomotives. I shall appreciate them from a distance.

They certainly are nice. Not enough model for the money regardless of provenance. Neat collectors item, I have a ATSF Mikado built in 1992.

Bob T, if I I had your skills I would have a problem paying $9K for a locomotive. It would certainly be a financial hit for me, I still drive a 2003 Toyota pickup, stick shift and manual windows. But if you look at it as piece of art, it might be kind of bargain.

Now $255 for a steak-that’s ridiculous. I don’t eat out any more in the US unless it is some hole in the wall place making something phenomenal and affordable. The quality to cost ratio is just too low. In Europe I eat out every day. For $50, a couple people can have a wonderful meal and tip is included.

Yeah, it was fun to own it for awhile, but the money invested took away a lot of the enjoyment of owning it. And, knowing brass models lose value going forward in our world, I didn't want to be the last man standing with a model of this value. I have very few brass models I've owned for more than a decade.............I enjoy them and then pass them along to some other steward.

The only exception is an HO scale ALCO Models SD40-2 my wife bought me for one Christmas in the late 70's. It was the 1st brass locomotive I ever owned. It cost $175 which was a fortune for us and it's worth maybe half of that today, but I'll never sell it.

I still have my first brass engine my dad bought me in 1986, a PFM N scale F40PH in CalTrans.. bought at Hobby Haven, Sherwood Forest Mall in Des Moines, IA. Memories and like you, I’ll never sell it. I seem to recall it was $150, a fortune to a then 13 year old kid. Made my day thinking about those times. I miss my dad.

Yeah, that's what model trains do for me as well.......takes me back to some great memories of a time long ago.

"my first brass engine my dad bought me in 1986" Eric L.

Which says it ALL!

up148 wrote: I wish Henry had built some UP models, as I owned one of his SP 4-10-2's for a short time and it was very nice.

Henry was a good friend, and at one of the "Eastern O Scalers" shows, he had a prototype of that engine in a wooden carrying case, and he pulled it out and was pondering the height of the smokestack. I thought to myself: You better make it whatever is correct or they will drag you over the coals.

He must have made a good choice, as I've heard said that model was totally accurate.

A really good guy gone way too soon!

Rich

Somewhere I saw a brief film on Sofue, where he was soldering a loco together (while smoking a cigarette). He would solder a bit, take a puff on his cigarette, put it down, and then doze off! (Might have been on the Brass Trains dot com. website)

Rich