Last night I saw an Ives steam locomotive at our model RR meet, it was black with red wheels. The man selling wanted $100 and said he would hold it for me as I didn't have that much cash on me at the moment. It seemed to run okay but there appeared to be exfoliation on the front of the pilot beam, the cowcatcher, tender, & one of the driving rods was missing and it was hard to tell but there were small bubbles all over it that led me to believe the metal was deteriorating, but I'm not entirely sure. He told me that someone had worked on it previously and removed the E-unit as well (which isn't a big deal for me as I just run forwards anyways, did these even have E-units?). I talked to one of the other tinplate guys at the meet and he said it was a good buy but I'm still weary of it.
This appears to be the same model:
What do you guys think? is it worth it?