I found somethinge here that a guy on another forum is willing to sell me. I posted a thread on a None Model Train forum. Where I'm a member, they have trader rateing feedback and his is good. I have no worries dealing with good folks on that forum, they are a pretty tight nit buch of guys. He said this was all N scale, and so it looks like, but hard to tell from the photos. He said he had HO scale also, and he asured me it was N scale. Thats what I want. Afar as I could tell from what he told me it was about all bought new. And most of it is atlas. The loco and the track for sure. I want Atlas code 80 track. He could not say one way or the other if it was code 80. He said he would sell me all of it for $75.00 shipped. Is this a good deal, sounmds like it to me. I have more pictures, but I'll add a few so you can get an idea. And the rolling stock with no wheels are all in the box, just fell off. He said he would hold it till I can come up with the funds. Thanks
Looks like an ok deal. Maybe not an "investment" per-se' but, you can get a good amount of use out of that stuff. The track and power-pack look like my dad's from the 1980's - which there's nothing wrong with that. Is that railing bent on the engine, or is that just the camera angle? In the end, what you plan on doing with it is most important. It looks like a good set to start out with and you can't get that much stuff in a store for that price...
The track is Atlas Code 80 by the tie spacing and the turnouts. The locomotive is supposed to be a 1997 Atlas GP-40 release, but it does not look like the shell seats properly. So the mechanism may not be the original. The rolling stack looks pretty marginal. With all of the missing trucks and the uncertainty about the locomotive, you may end up paying a lot for track. Might be one to let go unless you can inspect before purchase.
The guy said the wheels just came off of the rolling stock, and is in the box. And everything has new updated couplers. I think the rolling stock is worth the money alone. Or even the track. That much track alone would be over the asking price. Something to start with. From what the guy said, he talked like he only ran his traines at christams. So maybe the loco is good. Well at least it will give me something to pittle with. Thanks for the replys.
Let us examine: Nineteen freight cars. At shows, used freight cars are generally worth three dollars apiece, that is if they are intact. If we assume that he is telling the truth about having all of the trucks, couplers and undercarriages, the value of the freight car lot is fifty seven dollars. Under normal circumstances, the value of a used diseasel of that type at a show would be about thirty dollars. However, as David points out, the way that the shell sits on the chassis does not quite sit right with me. The clunky looking handrails also make me wonder. David indicates that Atlas released the GP-40 in 1997. I do not even know the prototype for the shell in the photograph, as it is far out of my modelling era, but I will assume that it is, in fact a GP-40, as I have every reason to assume that David is giving correct information. As I have already stated, I do not own an Atlas GP-40 or any other GP-40, for that matter. I would buy one only to use the power chassis for a bashing project. While I have received out-of-era gifts in the past, I have never received an Atlas GP-40. I have, however, bought Atlas first generation prototype releases from the mid to late 1990s. The handrails on them are much finer than the handrails on the shell in the photograph. While it is clear from the photographs that the power chassis is Atlas of relatively recent manufacture, something about the shell, again, just does not sit right with me. As someone has already indicated, the power pack is archaic. I had one similar, from the 1970s, but it said on it that it was for HO. I do not know if there was a difference back then, but I stopped using it, and the power pack from the initial trainset as soon as I could get to a FLHS. I bought an MRC plastic cased power pack; that is what I have bought ever since. I do not use DCC. The power pack might bring fifteen dollars at a show. The used track and control switches would fetch at least ten dollars at a show, maybe as much as twenty. Add it up: one-hundred two dollars for an optimistic figure. 'Optimistic' is the operative word, here. The freight cars: nine of them appear to be intact. That means twenty seven dollars, plus an extra dollar apiece for MT trucks; thirty six dollars. The other ten, as they do not appear to be whole, are worth a dollar or two apiece, if we say one-dollar fifty, then we reach a figure of fifteen dollars for them, plus two dollars for the MT trucks that appear to be there for a total of fifty three dollars for the freight cars. Since I am not sure that the shell belongs on that power chassis, the only thing of any value to me, at least from looks, is the power chassis. That is worth twenty dollars. We are now at seventy three dollars. Add the twenty five for the pack, track and switches and you are at ninety eight dollars. Thus, it seems logical that you are getting your seventy five dollars worth. But, again, her is where there is a breakdown. A cynic once stated that 'logic is far too often a means of proving the absurd'. Such has been my experience more than once. Here, my fear would be that I could be buying something that I could not operate. I am not sure if the locomotive is any good, I am not sure that the power pack is any good. There go two of the three key components of making a locomotive go down the track, a sine qua non of the actual running of a train. While the Actual Cash Value may be in the lot, I, or anyone who is or has benn connected with the insurance business or has dealt with insurance companies can tell you the truth about ACV. I would hold out and look for something of which I were more sure. You might spend a bit more, but I would rather spend three hundred dollars to get something that I could actually use, than spend seventy five and get something with which I could do nothing.
The cars look like a mixture of Atlas 1st Generation, a MDC tank car (that blue-white one), Trix/ahm/Aurora cars with Atlas 2nd Generation intermixed. You can hope that the loco runs well and if you need the track than it is a deal for you. hth Michael
Locomotive should be fine. Walkway just needs to be snapped back in place. A simple matter of carefully removing body, reseating walkway and snapping shell back in place. Really, an easy fix. SHould take less than a minute to correct. I've had same thing happen to me, with my Atlas GP30/35/40 etc...... Like others have said, just hope missing trucks/couplers are in box, as stated. But, looks like a decent start for a small layout of sorts! My opinions only. Take 'em for what they're worth...Which ain't much!
The forum that this stuff is on, the folks here want sell anything, and misrepresent the details to make a sale. I have been a member here for a year or more. They buy and sell rc helicopters, very expensive equipment. I have done the same, Flown and build Electrics, and Nitro birds. The guys are straight up, and rairly lie about what they have. Because it would cause them to get bad feedback, and thats not good when dealing with thousands of dollars worth of RC gear like they fly. I did not even ask if the loco would run, or the power pack works. Because I'm 100% it does. Just because of the guys feedback, and all the dealings I have made with these folks. I used to mess with the RC stuff, but had to get out due to finacle reasons. And now I want to have a hobby that I can enjoy inside. And I no longer have the chice of buying $300.00 worth of new trains. So this is why I wanted to get this stuff. Either get this or nothing. Pretty much is my options. But a little along I'll be able to work on, and maybe buy a few new items. This would get me a head start. Thanks for all the replys. I'm going to take it soon as the cash is avaible to me.
I have a lot of used Atlas track that I would be willing to part with pretty cheap. Included are straight and curves (multiple radius), a few manual switches, rerailers and bumpers. If interested, please contact me at dasj1234@aol.com. thanks.
It's a decent deal, if the locomotive is in good working order and the bend I see in the walkway is not permanent damage. The loco is probably still worth about $20 in parts if it can't be fixed. There is also a good deal of value in the Micro-Trains trucks that I see in the photo. You would be getting a good amount of junk parts along with the good stuff.
