Does anyone run thier Buddy L?

Show us some photos?

I'll take some tonight.  These are the series he did in the 90's.  I can find people selling them all over ebay but I have never actually seen it run. 

While not made by T-reproductions, the Retro 1-2-3 Hiawatha Locomotive is designed to run on Buddy L tracks.  Does anyone have one of these running on their Buddy L layout?  IMHO it's the most impressive Buddy L gauge locomotive ever made and you can still buy one for just $2650.  Of course, like the original Buddy L locomotive, it comes without a motor so adding one would be an additional expense.   http://www.retro1-2-3.com/prod...asp?number=342006100

 

Bob 

A beauty, but at $2650 -YIKES! 

 

Is it powered? 

Wow! Here's some info about the original Buddy L trains:

 

http://www.tcawestern.org/buddy.htm

 

In 1927, a complete line of model railroad equipment was started. The trains were big and heavy, they were 5/8 inch scale, and ran on two rail track that was 3¼" gauge ...

A 2" gauge train was also manufactured, known as the Buddy L Industrial Train. It too was push-powered ...

 

I have a L&T plus a few T-Reproductions passenger/freight cars, but I just display them. Norm Thomas (T-Reproductions) told me a couple of years ago that people do run them, but they must first install radio wave receivers in the tender for control. Running them in a closed loop would not just require a huge space, but the track can be very expensive and hard to find, I've never seen an actual layout. 

If that Retro 1-2-3 Baltic were powered and had RC control, the $2650 would not be so bad. 

Pound for pound that Hiawatha looks like a bargain. Almost 6 feet long and so wide and tall. Nice.

I pulled this out to get a picture of it.  I'm in a new house and I'm not sure these will ever make it out of the box again. 

I only unboxed the engine for the pictures but I have the engine, caboose, work caboose, crane car, gondola, two flat cars, and the hopper. 

 

The rail is the same as yours.  Extruded Al with welded ties.  I have 40 ft of track right now and I'm doubting I'll get more seeing as how I can't setup what I have.

 

 

I also took some pics of my sons pedal plane!

 

Boy, that's a sweet engine.

They weigh a ton!   This is a T-Reproductions with an electric motor on a worm drive. 

My understanding is that Buddy L gauge is also called "2". Is this correct?
Also, since Retro 1-2-3 was mentioned, do they make any "3" gauge trains? How big would that be?

Yes and no...  the little mining train is 2" gauge...the pacific and the hudson locos are 3 1/4" gauge.  Gauge 3 trains are actually operated on 2 1/2" gauge track and standard gauge is 2 1/8"

 

There is no "scale standard" for buddy L... but they are neater than bug poop.

They are neat and right now the pride of my collection, but with a smaller house I'm betting there will be a set on the market sooner or later. 

If you want to see Buddy L running you can watch the Tinplate Legends Vol. IV.  Caryl Pettijohn has a huge standard gauge layout with a very large loop of Buddy L suspended from the ceiling.

 

 

John.

Just to muddy the waters, Marklin gauge III was the same gauge as Bing gauge IV, 75mm, or just under 3". However Bing gauge III was 67mm, or just over 2.5". I believe Ernst Planck also made a gauge 8, but I think it was only 75mm as well. Marklin did make some very rare (and I am using the term properly here) gauge V sets, only a handful are known, less than 10, possibly less than 5. It ran on 4 1/2" gauge track!

Roland

4 1/2 ?!?  That's big enough for a kid to ride on for sure.

Missed that video. Just ordered it.

Well it's offical.  The standard gauge is all gone and I'll be selling the Buddy L.  If you know anyone who wants a full train and a box of strait track just send them my way.