Ohhh... If I were a rich man...

I matched the powerball number 26!

Alas, alas, that still leaves me $1494 short.  I will have to settle for a song.  Such is life.

I have the same problem but I call it the Italian disease "FUNDSRLOW".

That engine is beautiful.  I better take it off my phone or I'll end up buying it and end up living in a cardboard box for a while.  It's awful pretty, but probably won't keep me warm on the pavement on lower Wacker Drive.

Buying a $1500 used engine is not like buying a TV. Keep it a couple of years and you can sell it to recoup most of what you paid. The TV you can just throw away. Your tying up $1500 it is not gone.

Models are nice but if I were rich, I'd get an old Pullman car or some such thing and refurb it & ride around the real railroads. 

Just a little bitty, bitty, bitty, bitty, bitty rich.  The economy is kicking me in the stones again.  If people would pay me for the work I've done I'd feel better about laying out the fifteen hundred bucks.  Funny, I would never even consider paying more than three hundred for any modern engine made.  But that one seems like a bargain.  That said,  I'm going to have to step back and say no.   Gosh darn it.

Well, predictably, I said yes, and bought the darn thing.  Guy seems reliable, says it runs good, looks really nice, what's not to like?...  This is literally the last piece of train stuff I want.  I have a really nice all black 384 a , 385 with chugger and a great whistle in the tender, two 390s, one a blue comet, one restored black, a beautiful gun metal 392, and an 1835 with a great whistle tender too.  And now an original 400E, black with copper trim.  Fourteen 500 freights and a nice sample of original passenger cars.  Couple 318s, three # 8s and a maroon 380.  My dad's #10 set started this all off.  I don't need another thing. More track!

Can't wait to get my hands on this pig.  It's on the way !

Cheers,       BK

eat some ramen noodles for awhile, you'll be fine.

famous last words, "the last train I am going to buy"

Everyone's definition of "rich" is different.. I am fortunate to be in good health and be able to support 'most' of my hobby needs... In spite of...........

You guy's are great.   I think I got this guy.  I really  don't want anything more.  Post back when he is in my arms.  

.BK,

"I don't need another thing".   Now that is RICH 

Ed

I would just buy the MTH / Lionel remake for 1/3 rd the price.

Nice engine though.

I have absolutely no interest in a repro.  Nor anything made by MTH.  It has to be original.  To each his own.  I want my guys to be eighty plus years old and run like a vintage caddy.  Pulling freight and passengers around my floor layout with class and a sass that can't be duplicated in a modern day copy.  That's how I roll.

Cheers,       BK

I totally agree with you, an original one cannot compare to a repro MTH. I find more pleasure to run a 80 tear old train on a carpet layout as it has been done by a previous owner 80 years ago.

Some year ago i bought a nice original 400e at York, maybe a little less nice than yours and little more expensive but today i still enjoy to run it as you do. It would not have been the same with a repro, and as said Jim C, the value of an original will stay high in the future times so if one day you need some money it will be more easier with an original to recover your investment than with a repro.

i hope you will do a nice little video of it running as your previous ones.

Greetings for that great buy and enjoy it.

Daniel

Daniel - what nice thoughts you have shared.  We are in agreement totally.  Very well spoken and appreciated.  

Onward towards the fog.  As always, Cheers!       BK

William 1 posted:

I have absolutely no interest in a repro.  Nor anything made by MTH.  It has to be original.  To each his own.  I want my guys to be eighty plus years old and run like a vintage caddy.  Pulling freight and passengers around my floor layout with class and a sass that can't be duplicated in a modern day copy.  That's how I roll.

Cheers,       BK

Really, so there must be a notable difference in the new releases? Do they feel and run "cheap"?

JDaddy - I've never even seen a repro engine in person.  My fascination is with original prewar standard gauge trains.  I want something that was made eighty plus years ago and still runs like it was made yesterday.  Original paint and patina.  It doesn't get better than that in my world.

Understood. Nothing like old school. 

I still put the American Flyer prewar Hudson on the layout once and while still have all the freight cars in the set. I use to have the prewar stream line cars but they were taken away when I was a kid with my folks found out how much there were worth... never saw them again.

Good luck on your search. Have you been to York? I think my eyes glazed over with all the prewar I saw...

Oh gosh - I have heard that American Flyer prewar is the best of the best.  The bee's knees, the cat 's meow, the ying for your yang. But, like I said, this is my last engine...

Ha... that made me laugh... Not sure I like those link couplers though. 

In Many ways prewar is a bargain right now, prices have mostly dropped from what I have seen. Post war stuff has gone up, the new stuff, OMG, $1400. for that vision GG1, well, if I were bringing it home From the store, the package value of it, my car and a half a tank of gas would be worth $2500. LOL 

Jeff you have that right.

I was kicking my self after I saw this set - a Lionel prewar 408E passenger set in excellent shape. It was in a large Tupperware bin - so no boxes. but the paint was in great shape with little or no oxidation on the plating... $1300.00 It was similar to this picture below: