Now, where do I put it or what do I do with it..?

Late last week I came across a trainset on the 'bay', so I decided to put a bid on it earlier this week. Come Wednesday afternoon, to my surprise I won it ! Now $123.00 (£58.00) seems fair for a LMS 4F tender loco, five mixed wagons and a circle of track with a controller (battery). Some may think it's reasonable, others may think I'm mad for paying this much…, but then again, it is O gauge ! Oh, before I forget, it is a Lima set and about 25-30 years old…

When I got it home today after picking it up from the seller (we met up at Sydney Markets, not far from where I live), I joined all the track together, hooked up an electric controller and put the loco on the track. The little 3F ran with a stutter, so I cleaned up the wheels and gave the track a clean as well. Popped the loco back on and off she went. Woo hoo !! I gave it a run with all the wagons and to my surprise it ran faultlessly. I will say that the rail joiners are a little worn/loose, but it didn't stop the train from circulating.

So a few pics of my latest purchase…



^ A very large 1.5m diameter circle of track. Too big to go around the Christmas tree, unless I bring in a full size tree from outside.. ;-)



^ The 4F loco. Ok, it isn't fine scale, but I think I can add some details to the loco, like handrails, new whistle, a crew etc, etc.



^ Mineral wagon no.1, Caxton Coal & Coke.



^ Mineral wagon no.2 - Kendall & Co. Coal Merchants.



^ Mineral wagon no.3 - Hall & Dean Ltd.



^ Extra long mineral wagon - NCB.



^ and the last wagon, a Shell bogie fuel/oil tanker.

As can be seen in the pics, the whole set is in excellent condition for its age. There are no bleamishes on either the loco or wagons and all the track, being steel, was clean with no signs of any visible rust. I'm very pleased with this purchase and it will be purt away for another 'future' project.

Cheers, Gary.

O scale eh?  Interesting.  :cool:

:hmm He's up to something Max. worth the watching he is. good buy Gary.

 

cheers

 

toto

A brilliant purchase mate.
I was thinking it was a bit expensive at $123 until I saw the "O".

a definite bargain there,you will have lot`s of fun with that:doublethumb
:thumbs;-):cool:

G'day Gary,
What a good purchase you've made there.
Now fellas…I reckon that with Gary being a horticulturalist and also the fact that he now owns an "O" gauge train set, means the building of a garden railway sometime in the future.
Am I getting warm Gary?????
Cheers
Gormo..from Dunedin NZ

You can get scale chassis kits for the loco Gary and there are plenty of detailing kits around too. They do look better with chimneys etc changing and  things like that. In British outline lima also did a Class 33. These aren't bad models and over here normally go for about £60 - £80 in fair condition. They are off course in Coarse Scale but will run on Peco O gauge track but don't like the points (back to back is wrong for the finer scale track). A Good buy. There are also BR Mk 1 type coaches around as well.

Looks great Gary.

Had a quick look on UK eBay and you've definitely got a bargain :thumbs


Ed

Thanks for the replies.

Max, interesting yes. I like the idea of building/scratchbuilding some structures with all the detail that can't be done in OO or HO.

Toto, I'm not letting the cat out of the bag just yet !

Gormo, you'll only get warmer if you move north from Dunedin !  Sorry, but no garden railway.

John, Owen, Mick & Ed. Yes, a bargain I thought as well. The chap also sold another freight set the previous week for much, much less. I guess that's how ebay works for the seller. Sometimes you can make a quid, sometimes not. I believe he is selling off all his older sets to build a OO gauge railway.

Ok Toto, my initial thoughts are to sell off the circular track and perhaps the bogie tanker, then purchase a pair of points, some flex track and a few Peco O gauge chassis' to play with… But that's all I'm saying. Now stitch that with my reply to Max and you may see a trend developing ! ;-);-)

Like I said, this is a future project and may not be doing anything for another 12 months or so. But then again…

Cheers, Gary.

 

[user=878]Gary[/user] wrote:

…………………………………………………………………..may not be doing anything for another 12 months or so. But then again…

Cheers, Gary.

 

By my standards, that's rushing things Gary………………:shock::shock::shock:

Picked me up something BIG and green… A Class 33 !



At $55.00 (£25.35) it isn't too bad of a model. Yes, it needs some work done on the body, but overall, that is achievable. I have seen the same loco on ebay in excess of $140.00 (£64.50)… 

First job when it arrived at 8.00am this morning (posted Friday) was to put it on some track and give it a test run, back and forth. Thumbs up as she ran well. :thumbs

So the repairs needed are as shown.



^ A crack in the body and some repair work aroound the step and below, a small piece has been broken off the lower corner of the cab. Apart from these minor distractions, everything else is good. ;-)



Eventually the Class 33 will be fitted with O gauge Kadees and flushglaze window glass. The 4F and wagons posted earlier, will also be fitted with Kadees, whilst I'm at it.

Cheers, Gary.