I have been watching with much intrest some brass N-scale loco's on e-bay and have some questions? I know this subject must have been debated a lot on the forum,but I am fairly new so have missed some debates.
I am curios about the brass diesel loco's, by the look of things they dont sell as fast as steam in brass,why is that?
At the moment theier is about 40+ brass items on e-bay and all the brass steam get bid on fast e.g. two cab forwards started of at $100 and at the moment average $600.
Four or five diesels starting at $129 since 12 December not one bid.
Do they run badly or is the detail poor? I am just curios because at say $149 for brass = about the same amount that we pay at our LHS for a new Kato and in my opinion I would then rather go for brass if I have a choice.
CC
To brass or not to brass
Re:To brass or not to brass
The detail on brass locomtoives, regardless whether steam or diesel is usually better then on a similar plastic locomotive. That can vary depending on manufacturer and age, though, so don't take that as a golden rule.
As far as running/mechanism, from what i have seen, plastic locomotive mechanisms, like those from Kato or Atlas, are superior in both reliability and operational smoothness to those found under the shell of brass units.
For example, a friend of mine owns two Overland SD75I's in CN paint, which he paid more for then i paid for my three Athearn SD75I's (also CN) and three BNSF Kato doublestack cars. I installed the decoders in my three in about 2 hours per unit (the first took 3 hours, the last took one...so 2 is an average. The last 4 i did for someone took less then 40 minutes each). My friend had to mail his locomotives away to have a decoder installed, which took 6-8 weeks. We ran them head to head recently...both of his against two of mine. Mine not only started at a lower voltage, they made much less noise doing so, started with much less coging and jerking, and proceeded to pull more then the brass model, all the while looking beter then brass doing so.
Just my opinion, your results may vary. Batteries not included. Some assembly required. :lol:
AR
Re:To brass or not to brass
I would think that a brass loco will be more noisy than a plastic model because of the thin brass sides won't absorb any sound as much as plastic.
But as a N scale fanatic I definitly would like to add a few brass loco's to my fleet, but that will have to wait a few more years until I can manage to pinch a few pennie's and sell of a car or so.
I fully agree on the fact that it is a better option to buy two or more loco's for the prize of one brass item, that way one's rail road grow faster and let's face it, for me to open a parcel with at least two lococ's with different numbers is a very special moment and two is better than one.
CC
Re:To brass or not to brass
Check out this link It should answer most of your question on brass Locomotives. The authors are not fond of Brass diesels at all.
http://www.nscaledivision.com/frames_page.htm
Brass in Steam is cool but I don't have the cash for them.
Hope it helps.
Re:To brass or not to brass
I have 5 brass diesels... All 5 are factory painted Frisco Models from Hallmark, I can't comment on models from other manufacturers. I paid about what I would have paid for an equivilent plastic model for each locomotive. All 5 run OK, but they haven't had a lot of run time because I haven't gotten around to putting numbers on them yet.
In this day and age, I generally recommend staying away from brass diesel locomotives unless you can buy them for the same price you would get an equivilent plastic model for.
(I wouldn't pay more than $100 for most brass diesels today).
Where brass really shines is in doing railroad specific and one of a kind equipment... Because these items don't generally sell in quantities sufficient enough to make a plastic model worthwhile to produce. Passenger cars,steam locomotives, cabooses and some MOW equipment fall into this category, as do a few other odds and ends.
Paul
Re:To brass or not to brass
Thank you guys, My feeling was that brass might be good puller's because of the weight and there should be a high demand.
It would seem that it is just the other way around and I cannot speak with
experience as I dont own any brass yet.
What also spark my intrest was a booklet from PCM on theier latest models and on one page is a HO Big Boy not painted and WOW it is really something to look at, if I was in the possition to buy I would put it in a glass case and drool over it evry night.
CC
Re:To brass or not to brass
MARINEF wrote:
Now that sir is a different story! Due to the unique designs of steam locomotives, with type of freight and local conditions taken into account in the design of each class, plus the fact that the steam era also coincided with the peak of the era of the craftsman; resulted in some very unique designs. The fact that most were not mass produced in any one configuration, tends to create low demand for models of most of the steam locomotives. And the brass PCM Bigboy is an example of what can be done with a low production number model, both in price and detail.
I have only one brass (steam) locomotive in N Scale, but am extremely satisfied with it. I can assure you that it is not as highly detailed as the PCM unit and rightly so as it is reduced in size by 50%, but it sees lots of runtime. This due to the fact that the quality of the unit is not limited to appearance. I frequently have to clear the rails of saliva!
BobThank you guys, My feeling was that brass might be good puller's because of the weight and there should be a high demand. It would seem that it is just the other way around and I cannot speak with experience as I dont own any brass yet. What also spark my intrest was a booklet from PCM on theier latest models and on one page is a HO Big Boy not painted and WOW it is really something to look at, if I was in the possition to buy I would put it in a glass case and drool over it evry night. CC
Re:To brass or not to brass
My 2.13 cents worth...
I own a OMI Brass 3 truck Shay, a brass Joe Works 3 truck Shay, and a Atlas 2 truck Shay. Without a doubt the OMI is truely a work of engineering genius at it's finest. The unit is actually driven by the side driveshaft :shock: and the detailing is freaking amazing. The downside is it's noiser then heck.
The Joe Works unit is a very nice runner, extremely low geared, but is noisy as well (more of a whine as compared to the OMI unit which sounds like the pistoons are swapping holes) Detailing is good but not near the quality of the OMI unit, and the side gear rotates but does not drive the unit.
The Atlas is truely a good runner with low noise, but the detailing when compared to the other two is lacking big-time.
Brass steam to me is like my sons 1955 Ford Pickup he resto-mod'd. It's beautiful, the 3 duece manifold is a conversation piece, and definitely fun to drive, but I'm not going to take it to Las Vegas for the weekend because I'm old and I need my "peace-and-quiet".
The 2 brass shays I have were bought at below value prices. The OMI shay I found on ebay and got it for the opening bid price of $200, as the lister put it in the wrong catagory. The Joe Works shay I bought at a On30 convention for $75.00. I would never have paid the ebay "going price" for either one.
I have yet to tackle decoder installs in either one - and may never try it as I understand that both have thier motors grounded to the frames. (If anyone here has experience in this, please speak up)
Anyway, all that being said, brass steam seems to have much better detailing - new plastic runs better, is quieter, and best of all you can get parts.
Re:To brass or not to brass
I own a few brass engines and about 20 plastic shell engines. If you can get the brass at a good price it's worth it for the details. Also for the ease in painting a lot of custom schemes can be done. If you notice some brass diesels have kato drive and chassis. The ease in dcc installation, most manuf. are now making split frames if not plug and play, give the plastic an advantage. Also there are loads of after-market horns, railings, sunshades, grabirons, etc that you can add. Brass engines, at least here in NYC area, cost about twice as much as plastic so if your not interested in a one-off loco or a custom job that you cant paint and decal yourself, I'd recommend plastic shells.
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