What is your most expensive Locomotive and are you glad you bought it?

My favorite is the UP Vision Challenger,I like it better than the Big Boy because there is more versatility in the consists that you can pull,passenger or freight.

Mikey

My Sunset/3rd Rail Northern Pacific Z-8 4-6-6-4, at $1800. Even more impressive, in my opinion,  than my Sunset/3rd Rail UP 4023 4-8-8-4, at the same price.

PSC UP 2-8-8-0 Bull Moose. Accurate, beautiful and worth the cost.

The first expensive locomotive "I" bought was the MTH Premier N&W J 611 in 1998. My father and I were on the way home from our first TCA York meet and we stopped at B&E Junction in PA. The 611 is my favorite locomotive and at the time I was only 12 years old. The scale J was on the shelf in the shop looking like an unobtainable dream. My dad bought me that locomotive that day. I was shocked, it was unbelievable. That same locomotive sits in a display case in my living room now. A reminder of his generosity and love.

My Lionel Legacy Scale SP GS-4 #4436, $1200.

The Lionel Vision Line BigBoy 2014. I am still in the process of finishing my round the room outside track to run it without carpet cental.

I was going to say my Lionel Centipedes, but after thinking about it a bit I've decided it is my Lionel scale PRR T1 (got the Centipedes on sale).  Why is the T1 my most expensive?  Well, that is a long story.

Since I model the PRR, a T1 was a must.  I bought the 1st issue MTH T1, which was conventional, for nearly full price.  I soon decided that I only wanted command engines, so I had the T1 upgraded with DCS plus some additional features.   As I settle on my late 40s era, I realized the MTH version of the T1 did not fit and now I wanted the Lionel TMCC T1, which did fit the late 40's. So, I traded my MTH (now about $1,300 in it) for the Lionel, worth about $500 on eBay.  The Lionel did not have cruise, so I had it upgraded with EOB as well as LED lighting ($300+).  When running it would short out on my switches, and some research here on the forum indicated the center drivers were too wide causing the shorts.  I found somebody on the forum to take the drivers off and machine them down ($150+, maybe too much).  The EOB never worked right so I sent it to gunrunnerjohn who fixed it for a very reasonable price.  Adding in shipping, this engine has cost me a total of over $1,900.

Was it worth it?  Yes.

The 3rd Rail N&W 2300 Steam Turbine Electric. My dad worked in the Motive Power department and was assigned to the 2300 from 1954 to 1957. If I could only have one model locomotive this is it.

Am I glad that I bought it? Let me put it this way. I was glad to be able to buy it. Thank you Scott Mann.

If you have a copy of Louis Newton's book Rails Remembered "The Tale of a Turbine", take a look at page 909. You'll see a picture of my Dad.

Its a tie between my VL Big Boy and my 3rd Rail AC-9. I like the AC-9 more becuase it is a much more interesting and beautiful locomotive

By and Far, The Lionel VisionLine BIG BOY$$$$$$. Well worth the Money, and it was a Challenge!!!!

 I second that emotion! I love my VL Big Boy as does anyone visiting my layout. Most importantly, so does my wife. 

My MTH  PRR War Bonds DAP set with PRR 2-10-4 J1. 

Paid right at $1K....but what a deal! My brass PRR S1, Lionel 1st gen Big Boy and brass T1 were all cheaper than the J....but it's worth it. 

Lionel Big boy for sure and I couldn't be happier with it. 

Mine is my Lionel Legacy PRR B6 switcher.  MSRP of $699.99; I bought it for around $575.  Definitely worth it.

mikey posted:

My favorite is the UP Vision Challenger,I like it better than the Big Boy because there is more versatility in the consists that you can pull,passenger or freight.

Mikey

 

I agree with you 100% - you got i right on dude!  Plus, it is better looking than  the B-Boy.

My Weaver Models Lackawanna Pocono...

VL Bigboy; hands down.

Rod

For me its a mth premire 765.Look good runs good and looks at home pulling a fast freight.I paid $$$.$$ and I am happy with it.Oh yea the mars light looks cool to..

3rd Rail's N&W 2300 (Jahn Henry) a unique locomotive.  Very much like the electric generating stations/plant I worked at for 20-years.

2300 joins my two other unique engines.

NO $$$$ regrets except no one makes an appropriate caboose for the era.

Ron

It's a tie (within $2) between my 3rd Rail CNW H1 Northern and my MTH "as-restored" Big Boy 4014 w/scale wheels. Glad I bought both locomotives (kinda had to) because each model has a back story behind it.

My VL Big Boy, and yes, I'm very happy with it. Showcase when family and friends come over. No one gets tired of it.

As far as near-misses go, I wish I had gotten a 3rd Rail Jawn Henry and aux tender when they had them.. oops.

Given that everything is relative, I am going to have to say my Lionel 258. $80 for it last December.

I have the LionChief Plus FT ABA set in Santa Fe colors, north of $600, and very happy with it, though it took a couple of returns to get everything working correctly.   

My most expensive locomotive is peanuts compared to others, but it's a Weaver consolidation I bought on sale for $525. It is a shelf queen that has never run properly. It's awaiting a conversion from TAS to ERR that I hope will cure its woes once and for all.

Re title question....

So far, Scott Mann's latest tour de force, the DRGW L-131 2-8-8-2......

And...

Are you kidding?  My wife was ecstatic to get HER  new engine (favorite road).....dropped everything to come to the shop for the unveiling the day it arrived!

KD

In the market I deal in, pre-war and postwar Lionel mostly, price is pretty irrelavent and relative.  I have found some high end engines at  pretty decent pricing but the most I ever paid for a Lionel engine was for a very nice 736. It is a great runner and worth the $$.

UP Big Boy (VL)

Brent

In 1983, I bought the New York Central  MPC 20th Ltd set from Charles Ro.....~$700.....I had never spent that much money on a train before!

Once the dam broke, the rest is history.....

Still have the NYC set and by having the wheels reworked for traction tires, it now can pull the full train on non-Lionel track.

Most recently, I purchased the PS3 607 J, Legacy Mohawk and PS3 Hudson.....all around the same price and I am happy that I own them.

Peter

Gilly@N&W posted:

The 3rd Rail N&W 2300 Steam Turbine Electric. My dad worked in the Motive Power department and was assigned to the 2300 from 1954 to 1957. If I could only have one model locomotive this is it.

Am I glad that I bought it? Let me put it this way. I was glad to be able to buy it. Thank you Scott Mann.I

If you have a copy of Louis Newton's book Rails Remembered "The Tale of a Turbine", take a look at page 909. You'll see a picture of my Dad.

Here is Tom's Jawn Henry in action....2014, I believe.....

....and that's on an O81 curve!

Peter

Most I ever spent on a toy train was about $900. Ever since MTH cataloged the Railking 2-8-8-2 Y6B as an Imperial model, I knew I wanted one. Don't ask me why, I just "knew"!

It was issued a few times and was never able to buy one. Spring 2012 they had been reissued again, this time as a set with the engine, coal hoppers, and a caboose. Uncle Sam also provided a very healthy tax refund that year. Naturally, I was soon on MTH's product locator to see who had them. Eastside Trains had the set available and gave me a nice discount on the shipping cross country. I sold the cars and caboose (didn't really want them to begin with, primarily just wanted the engine) and it has racked up many happy miles. It is on the layout now pulling a nice tank train.

So far, that has been the most I've ever spent and will remain the most. It was tough to look at the bill for that one but once it was on the track, I was glad I did it! I try to stick to keeping purchases between $300 - $400 max. Occasionally I may go a bit more but overall I stick to the max of $3-400. I just purchased an MTH Subway set for a nice price, unfortunately, right out of the box, the rear motor was not running. Back to MTH it goes, hopefully it will be running properly soon - what a cool train that is!

Add me to the VL Big Boy list! I still get excited every time I blow that whistle.

Putnam Division posted:

In 1983, I bought the New York Central  MPC 20th Ltd set from Charles Ro.....~$700.....I had never spent that much money on a train before!

Peter

We tend to forget how expensive trains were then.

My most expensive engine is a Pacific Fast Mail HO SP AC12 from 1984. $1750 which equates to over $4K today. Beautiful model, dare I say state of the art back then, but did not run as smooth as my $200 Rivarossi AC12.

Pete

I've never been one to keep track of what I've spent on any of my trains, but I'd have to say it is a close tie between my VisionLine Steamtown Big Boy and the Lionel Acela with the add-on cars. And in the words of the great Edith Piaf, "Non, je ne regrette rien"!!!

The 3rd Rail CNW H1 Northern

The most expensive engine that I have purchased is an MTH 3 truck Shay.  Coming in second is a Lionel Milw. Road E9 AA set.  

Larry

I guess it would be my Marx 994 tin steam loco. The big one with the Nickle Plate tender used in some 7" tin sets. I gave $70 for it and three 7" tin cars. Yep, I regret buying it, especially for that kind of money.  LOL

The loco was just too big. Too plain. Too crude, even by Marx standards. I don't use it at all. In fact, I just parted it out to keep other (less expensive) Marx projects going.

My most expensive loco is an Ace Trains A4 Pacific.  Ace is based in Britain and manufactures so-called "modern tinplate".  

My Pacific is a one-of-kind issue labeled for "Georges Carette" a French-born toy train manufacturer who was a contemporary of Bing, Ives, etc.  I bought it from a hobby shop in London.  I haven't taken it out of the box to photograph it, but it's similar to this one below:

I would have loved to get the one labeled for "J. Lionel Cowan" but I'm sure whoever has it is a happy guy who probably isn't in a selling mood.  Just finding the one I got and then bringing it over from the UK was quite an effort.  My search lasted about two years.

I also purchased an Ace trains passenger consist to go with it and look forward to changing things up now and again on my otherwise all-US equipment layout.

Here's a YouTube video of a similar Ace A4 pacific in action:

Steven J. Serenska

Lionel vision line big boy 4014.

My most expensive engines that I ever brought is:

MTH-Premier N&W Class A 1218 Steam engine (PS-3)

MTH-Premier N&W "J" Steam engine (PS-3)

MTH-Premier Southern PS-4 Steam Engine (PS-3)

Can you imagine how many MTH-Premier diesel engines that I could have purchased instead of purchasing these engines??................lol!!

That is IT for me and steam engines!!!...............lol...............I think???...................rogerw.