New member Peter models the Denver South Park & Pacific and I thought that I would send a photo of a little HOn3 PFM Bogie that I painted for a friend. While lettered for his railroad, the paint scheme is one that was applied to the real locos. In this case, the colors are Lake Red, Russian Iron, graphite smokebox, red wheels and tender truck, black mechanicals and polished brass on the domes, etc. This is a smooth running HOn3 loco, runs as well as any made today. Woodie
Those loco models go back quite a few years. Haven't seen one in a while. Looks really nice. Boxcab E50
Nice locomotive! I really enjoy your selection of a cogdon stack; my favorite stack of all. Wolfgang: While most brass builders understood the concept of a Mason Bogie, there was on in HOn3 (a 2-8-6t iirc) which missed the boat. Instead of both trucks swiveling, they were rigid like a Maine 2' Forney. There is a single survivor (1873), and she runs! (the Torch Lake in Dearborn, Michigan) Michael
Yes, this little HOn3 Mason has a swiveling engine, just like the real thing. PFM's designers did a great job on the mechanism and even with the old open frame 5 pole motor, she runs a nice as any of today's locos. Minimum radius...I don't realy know, but it will run around my On20 (HOn3 gauge) mini layout which has 11" radius. The loco's owner has 16" on his layout. She is rather light on the drawbar, maybe 3 light cars can be pulled up his 4% grades, but she sure looks great doing it! These little jobs command quite a price these days, last one I saw was about $650 US. I have worked on both the PFM and Balboa 2-6-6 Bogies and while the Balboa had intricate frame detail that the PFM doesn't have, they did not run as well and that beautiful frame was prone to getting bent easily and then the loco was almost un-repairable...just becomes a static model. Woodie
Nice work! I wanted to post to share a story on this loco since there isn't a lot of other information out there. 3 weeks ago, I ran across one of these on ebay listed in the HO section. It was labeled as an "HO N3" (note the space between the ho and n3) and didn't get much notice by the usual hon3 searchers. I ended up winning it for $25. ! Well, it was to be delivered the day after president's day about 2 weeks ago and we got a snow storm. Somehow, through the magic of the United States Postal Service, they claim it was delivered to my porch, however, no box ever showed up. I called the post office about 10 times in 3 days with no luck. They swear it was delivered (I don't know how a mail carrier can remember a specific package from a specific day) and claim someone must have stolen it from my porch. Odd thing is, there was a package on my porch that day but it wasn't this train. So why would someone steal one package and leave the other one? My guess is they delivered it to the wrong address (it was correctly addressed) and the new owner decided to keep it. I put up flyers on all the telephone poles for a 4 block radius and even offered a $100 reward to anyone with information. Still no luck. I've pretty much come to terms with the fact I'll never get it. I did change a few things after this. I no longer have packages shipped to my house, but to my work and I've switched to FedEx for shipping out. Sorry to drag this thread out of the dark, but I just had to get this out there. At least I didn't pay $650 for it. I guess I shouldn't complain since some might say I got it dishonestly myself (seller's mistake).
Wow-there must be 100 HOn3 modelers WISHING they could get a Bogie for 25 bucks! If you ever get it, I'll give you 200 bucks if you send it to me! I think maybe you got "took" somehow. Woodie
NWPhil- I had this same thing happen to me back in early October of last year. A package I shipped, with delivery confirmation. It took USPS 15 days to find it. It was delivered to the wrong address. Don't ask me how, as USPS never explained, nor did they apologize. Obviously the carrier was not competent and also lied about delivery. BTW- I received a package Saturday via USPS. It was supposed to contain forty brand new employee timetables. Instead there were only twenty eight. The box looked like it had been through a war, torn and open at both ends. Only seventeen of the twenty eight were undamaged. The rest look like they'd been dumped in a grease pit. The missing twelve? Who knows. USPS folks had better be careful, or they'll be on the unemployment line. There are too many alternatives to their service these days! Boxcab E50
This is the first time this has happened to me. Hopefully it's the last. Tracking showed that they "attempted" to deliver the package on the 22nd which I thought was odd because there was no signature required and they usually just left things on the porch. It said a notice was left, but when I got home there was no notice on my door. I called and even went in that evening before they closed but the clerk said it wasn't there (which I found out later was a lie). Then on the 24th the post master admitted that there was never a notice left because the trucks never made it to my house that day. It's frustrating knowing that it was at the post office on the 22nd when I went in. I'm pretty sure they either delivered it to the wrong address or it's still at the post office somewhere. I highly doubt it was stolen from my porch. A few weeks prior I had a new computer shipped to my house and it sat on my porch all day in a big HP box that would've been clearly identified as a brand new computer. Plus, my retired neighbors are home all day on 3 sides of my house and they keep a close eye on things. They called me in the fall when I had someone give me an estimate on getting my roof re-done. Oh well. Live and learn i guess. What's frustrating is that with the USPS, there is nobody to talk to. I can't go to the post office's superior to try to escalate the issue. Nobody is held accountable for mishandling mail and it's even in the US code that the USPS is not liable for lost or damaged packages unless there is insurance on the item. I guess I should've insured it but then I'd only get my money back. I really wanted the engine!
