GN M-2 2-6-8-0 from 3RD RAIL

Awesome looking engine. Looking forward to seeing some videos. Good luck and enjoy. 

Joe

You won't be disappointed in anything 3Rd Rail produces!  I love their brass steamers and own several myself.  I think for the money, they're hard to beat in terms of quality and finish.  Some of the nicest 3R stuff you can buy.

This is a fantastic locomotive.  You sure picked a winner for the first one!

GM M-2 (cont)

They painted it correctly.  Green boiler with domes, appliances and piping painted black. Also, black band along the front of the belpaire fire box and oxide red cab roof.  No white strips on the running boards or tires. All wheels and running gear has a nice blackened tone.

Proper nomenclature under the cab window and nice back head detail, including a plate between the cab and tender.

Nice piping going to the air compressors.  Will dress up the knobs with some red paint.

Brake shoes and the traction tire has treads.

Boiler stays along the top painted black: my HO version doesn't have that detail.

GN M-2 (cont)

Tender:

Usual vanderbilt tenders, oil burner, as found on just about all GN steam locos.

Has 4 doors that open.

The railings seem a little large, probably to keep hanger rash down.

Comparison to my HO Tenshodo M-2.  Back in the 80's, they were the 'cadilac' of the steam locos but, like most things, the detail has improved much since then.  Back then, the only good steam engine was brass.

Beautiful, can't wait to see a video.  Congrats!

Beautiful engine in every respect.

Nice loco!  Beautiful detail, as always from 3rd Rail.

Very nice. I have always been a fan of Great Northern steam even though I have never owned any. I remember drooling over the Pacific Fast Mail catalogs going back to the '60s.

I believe the owner was a GN fan and many of those engine were "Crowns", the Vision engines of their time.

Pete

Samparfitt, you won't be disappointed with your purchase.  It took just one purchase of a 3rd Rail model to start a snowball effect where I became a collector of them.  Oddly, I haven't gone down the GN path yet but should soon, especially being a MN resident with relatives that had worked for the GN railroad. 

I really gained an appreciation for this model when I was invited to run with a great group of guys at Trainfest 2 years ago.  I snapped this photo of a beautifully weathered model that belongs to gnnpnut here on the forum.  I find myself sharing it often to people outside our hobby that think trains are just toys.  Every single response is literally the same.   "WOW"!!!   

Jerry, I hope you don't mind me sharing it.  It's an amazing model and the photo brings back some fond memories of a time a was truly grateful to be a part of.  

Nick

Great engine. I don't model the GN but I have to say your photos make me wonder if I should have done.

Regarding this being built in Korea, I think this being an Anniversary Series issue it was made in 2011, which seems to be confirmed by the 3rd Rail website. At that time 3rd Rail used a Korean manufacturer and I think one of my steamers from them was also built there. Later models are Chinese-made.

Norton,

You're right on the PFM owner being a GN fan.  Not sure how I got hooked onto GN, living in Ohio, all my life!  Being in the Marines, I was in Japan for 7 weeks and, every week end, I take a pocket full of yen (back then it was 360 Y to the $1) and go to a different city and check out their hobby shops, looking for brass engines: the bulk of them being Tenshodo and GN.  I've always like the glacier colors with the air compressors usually on the front and the vanderbilt tender look. I've got an HO layout in the basement (33'X47'), 1500' of handlaid track on individual wooden ties (back in the 80's, they didn't have very good looking ready track, plus it was a lot cheaper),  mainline 400' long, point to point,  two huge yards (500 cars and 400).

I've belong to GNRHS (great northern railway historical society) since 1976.

=========

Audidriven,

Nice weathering.  The bulk of my HO stuff is weathered but nothing in 3 rail.

I'm also into RC planes and go to Owatonna, MN every August.

Here's a video of one of my planes:

Make sure you watch the entire video on after landing and the plane taxis back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERTe1bnuPck

I thought he did a great job of weathering it as well.  Several of the guys at the show had their models weathered, which really adds to the look when running.  At this time I'm finishing by basement so the layout I did have has come down.  For now my engines are either in display cases in another area of the house or in boxes.  After seeing the weathered models I can surely say mine will be weathered when I do run again.

RC planes have always been the other hobby I wanted to jump into, especially seeing the Byron Originals P-51 Mustang in all of the magazines in the 80's.  Unfortunately, cars and trains take any extra funds leftover after my wife and daughter get done with their heavy spending.

I can relate on hobby funds.  Back when raising the three kids, there wasn't a whole lot of extra $$ so I used to paint brass steam engines for extra income. 

Now that they are all gone, the house and vehicle paid off and, the best part, retired, I can buy more stuff that I 'need'.  It's amazing how much extra money you have to spend once that mortgage is paid off.

ps: I updated my previous post routing to youtube on one of my rc planes.

Here are two videos and a photo of my GN M-2.  Sunset really did a wonderful job on this model.

Have a beautiful Rocky sorta day. 

Regards,

GNNPNUT, a GNRHS member since 1978

gnnpnut,

Thanks for posting the videos.  She looks great on the layout. 

I see you also like NP.  They had some great engines.  The Z class, especially the Z-8: love that solid pilot.  Probably the large challenger ever made.

Excellent choice!  I've had my eye on this jewel for awhile now.  Of course this thread and the terrific videos might be enough to push me over the edge!     Hazards of being on the forum!!!

David

Funny thing is that I had seen that video previously.  As much as I liked that P-51 back in the day, it is actually a Corsair that I would want in RC and spent some time looking at them on youtube one day.  The folding wings are a great touch.  It's always been my favorite plane, but I have yet to see a real one fly.  They had one in St Paul several years ago that was going to go up for a missing man formation, but they couldn't get it started.  It was actually one of the hottest days I can remember.  They sent up a P-47 instead, which is another cool beast as that thing shook the ground when it buzzed the field after. 

If you are going to have that in Owatonna I may have to make a trip down to see it in person.

Nick

audidriven,

It's definitely worth the trip. 

It's one of the largest rc warbird event that I've ever attended.

It's a warbird and any scale plane built before 1962.

There are 150 pilots and about 500 planes. Minimum size is 80" wing span but most are 8' to 20' wide.

Here's the club's site and directions:

http://www.smmac.com/directions/

Funny you should mention P-47's as I just built one last year:

Taxi and take off:.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yATZhz6mAKc

flyby:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv-D...ature=youtu.be

landing and taxi back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFoY...ature=youtu.be

You might want to contact gnnpnut (his eMail is in his profile), as he currently has his Sunset/3rd Rail Northern Pacific Z8 for sale at an excellent price.