If I could only keep a couple... There are two things in my collection that I'll keep till I pass from this earth.... the Aurora Postage Stamp train set (still in the box) my brother and I saved for months to buy when we were kids (and it still runs!), and the second is an unpainted Key Big Boy my now deceased father purchased for me as a birthday present many, many years ago for the (at the time) unheard of price of $320. It took me over 50 phone calls to find that thing.... NCDaveD.
Just like oldrk, I have one of the MRC Berks - my dad and I split the cost and bought it at a Montgomery Wards in Fort Wayne, IN in the early 1970's. It still runs. I still have an MRC RSD-15 in B&O that came with the first N train set that my dad gave me one Christmas. And there is the A-B-A set of Aurora (Trix) Postage Stamp F7s in B&O that I sent away for from the Sal Marino Company - they still run, too.
I had a Nickle Plate Road MRC Berkshire that never ran very well. It was a dog right out of the box and nothing I could do could ever make it better. I still have most of it although the boiler shell has donated all its useful parts to other projects. A lot of the side rods and crank pins were donated to a friend to repair his locomotive. The tender was heavily modified and ended up here.
As you know Ken, I perceive myself as a model builder so my sentimental attachments are for the structures, locos, rolling stock, and vehicles I've built as well as the locomotives I've modified and/or repainted. Anything straight off the shelf holds no sentimental attraction and mostly sits in the closet. I've still got almost every loco I've ever bought and several are scheduled for new motors, details and paint so they'll become sentimental favorites eventually but aren't today.
I even have some HO equipment I have sentimental attachment towards. The first and foremost is an Athearn PRR F7A, which when I was 12 I found it on the model shelf in a WT Grant store, and would hide it and hide it behind other models so no one could buy it before I could afford it......$5.99. That was 1959. Mom and Dad also took me to a department store and bought me a Tyco F7A, A set SF Warbonnet, and then an AC Gilbert 0-6-0 PRR set and I was on my way. Although mom and dad gave me a lot to get started, even a plywood board, track and a spare room, I had to have that Athearn rubber band drive F!!! Two months pass by, and all of a sudden it is Christmas, and I score a whopping $25 from relatives. The next day couldn't come fast enough. I take my bike as fast as my feet will allow, and truck it on to WT Grant, only to NOT find the loco on the shelf. I frantically search all over models for it, ask for help, and almost gave up, then in the Mattel Cowboy equipment, guns, holsters etc, was that Athearn box with my valued F. I have since saved the rubber band frame, and applied a new Athearn mechanism under the original shell, and it occupies a place in my heart forever. The other sentimentals came when I was really getting into the hobby, and I purchased a Model Die Casting PRR Prairie 2-6-2 in kit form, and took a day off from work after prepainting it to build it. I lost about 20 little rivets in the process, and must have taken about 5 trips to Warrick Hobbies (20 miles round trip) and Pete, out of the graciousness of his heart, just loaned me the Model Die Casting Parts Box from the back. It turned out really well, so I offered Pete Warrick, that the loco be on display for a while to demonstrate that even cranial challenged people like me can build one of those kits. I have since gone on to build Bowser, Tyco, rebuild kits and such, and every one is special. Same for special pieces of rolling stock. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willamani
There are several engines that i am particularly fond of , but if I had to pick just one, it would be my first Kato Mike. It was from the first run when I owned my Train store and I used it as a demo on a loop of Kato track. It ran for almost 8 hours a day for a few years. It also was key in selling not only more Kato Mikes, but kato track and other N-scale stuff in particular. When I closed the store it "followed" me home and has spent many years hauling freight on our NTrak layout. One day it wouldn't run at a show so when I got home I took it apart to find the problem. I didn't find anything wrong and put it back together. It ran fine! And still does. It's since has received LACKAWANNA on the tender, a new drawbar and traction tires. It made the trip to Louisville and took a few laps on our DC loop. I can't imagine how many hours it has, but it is surely my sentimental favorite.
This is mine its a IC Transfer Caboose Scatch built frame,Cut downBman body,Life Like engine hand rails...Jerry
My current favorites are the four Kato AC4400's that I purchased undecorated, and painted into MOPAC "double Eagle" scheme, featuring the screaming eagle on the long hood. I also purchased two in Up amd two more in CEFX. These eight are the best runners I have ever had.
x600 I have a fondness for my first Kato Mike, too. I can remember sitting in my office reading MR's and N Scales with that very effective 1994 Kato ad campaign "Meet Mike", and also it was a desert in new Steam, I was virtually chomping at the bits to get one.....hey not only a new steamer, but one from Kato. It just couldn't be better. It was a few months because they were retailing all over the place at about $160 and my kids were small, and expensive, and we just did some home renovations, so the account was a little lean. But the yearning didn't stop. Then I see an ad in RMC from HP Petersen, who lived about a half mile away for 100 bucks. Got the loco about 2 weeks after the MR review, which said it had poor drawbar pull, and a definite weak spot at the drawbar. When I got mine, I first noticed how tightly it was packed and just removing it from its foam shell, I almost broke the drawbar. Then on first test run, it only pulled 4 cars up my 1% grade, and I was disappointed. I had JNR Kato steamers and Hudsons which pulled over 30 cars each, why is this one a "98lb weakling"? The very next day the drawbar snaps apart, and on Sunday, I called Kato's 800 number and vented. I got a call back from Hiroyoshi (sp) Kato himself, and by that time, I told him how much the hundred bucks meant, some engineering disappointments, and asked him why they just didn't Americanize the JNR Mike instead of a complete re-tool. He told me they made a mistake listening to their engineers, and promised to make it good, He told me to run it awhile and it will pull almost 20 cars and he would send me a new drawbar. In 3 days, 11 drawbars came in the mail, and since then it can pull over 20 cars. For some crazy reason, all that drama I went through, and survived, bonded me to that Burlington loco, and now I even have a few cabooses of different styles for it. I also have purchased 5 more Mikes all the way to the newest version, and they all run great, and all have MT couplers, one is totally repainted, and all have traction tires. If not the best, surely one of the best. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
