Feeling guilty about piecing out a scale engine

Hi Trevor,

I totally understand your concern and possible guilt trip.

I usually ask myself if the train, or toy, is old or rare and cannot be easily replaced.

If so, I may tend to respect them and leave them alone as we perhaps take on the role of a steward or historical caretaker of the item.

Another reason to not part it out is if it belonged to a favorite friend or relative. I might feel guilty about that.

In your scenario, I would suggest that you paid your money and it is yours to do with it the way you see fit. 

As cool as the new offerings are, I fear they will not hold their value and still operate properly decades from now like the old Lionel trains did.

Besides, who knows how many uses you will find for the parts you not only need now but later on as well?

I parted out a working loco, cut the doors open and detailed the engine room to create a scene where it was having its prime mover replaced.

This static loco gets a lot of attention on my layout.

Make yourself happy!

TJ

I have been known to chop a model locomotive up on several occasions.  My MTH Hudson had strange driver insulation, no tail beam, and undersize cylinders, so I unbolted it and sold the mechanism on eBay.  I converted a scale model to 3- rail using a Williams mechanism a couple months ago.  There was a guy in a Philly suburb about four decades ago who was making articulateds out of old Lionel junk.  This is nothing new.

One of our members made a Northern and a 2-10-4 from Lionel O gauge Locomotives. He also fabricated a Blue Goose from a Baby Hudson. All started out as $5 junk box and "grab bag" purchases.

Bashing is modeling, not collecting.

If there is a "lesser" alternative use it, but it is yours.

The other scales stuff tends to be much lower in cost too.

Pull out DCC, and you could easily pay more for just a new car in O. 

That's only a decision you can make. But I think we have all done this at one time or another. Unless the engine is one of the roads you operate. I would go ahead and use it for what you brought it for. Better to bring back to life two or three engines then none at all. 

I couldn't even estimate how many locomotives and other trains I've parted out. And there were several folks running businesses parting out trains for quite some time in the 1980's. Sometimes its the only way to get parts.

As far as I am concerned, its part of the hobby.

I have to agree, bring back to life two or three engines then is better than none at all.

A crash to the floor unit. I purchased this model, as is, for spare parts, and eventually put it back together. Tough to reduce these models to parts, and pieces, IMO.  Required new windows from Atlas.

Trevor,

You're sweating over nothing. If you were worried over a vintage collectible engine I would understand your concerns. In years past I would buy two or three vintage Std Gauge engines every year with the intentions of piecing them out. I felt justified in doing so because the value of a true collectors piece would be seriously downgraded if I were to use reproduction parts. It is a matter of being aware of what you are doing.

No sweat.  These are just toys when all is said and done.  Part it out and use the parts to make what you need. Now if it was a rare Dorfan or Voltamp - maybe not!

I recently parted-out a perfectly-good PS2 dash 9 unit.  I felt a little bit guilty, but that's kinda silly because these are not heirlooms or precious artifacts of a civilization.

From Martin H -

"because these are not heirlooms or precious artifacts of a civilization."

Actually, these, among many, many others, are indeed "precious artifacts of a civilization".

Artifacts aren't all cathedral ceilings or statues or paintings. Indeed, the articles of everyday life are far more telling and even valuable historically than the sometimes overblown projects of long-dead megalomaniacs.

=====

Whew. Having said that - I have bashed many a loco and piece of rolling stock. I'll do it at the drop of a Moto-Tool. I have never bought a nice, complete locomotive (I do steam almost entirely) with the idea of "parting it out", though I have certainly bought bits and pieces of them to use elsewhere. Shells, details, tenders, trucks - great fodder.

I would feel "guilty" taking a nice, complete O-scale loco and chopping it up for parts, too. But I would do it, with enough reason and a low enough price. So, I think that his feelings of "guilt" may be more like mine: not because it's "collectible" - or not - but because it's already a nice little machine, and my project might turn out worse than the original donor.

 While not quite the price of an engine. I recently purchased an Atlas Golden Spike reefer for cheap money. Purchased the car to fix a woodsided reefer that was in need of a new frame. The trucks ended up on a 2 rail car I purchased. Bought the car for pretty much what the trucks would sell for.

I've bought several with sole intent of cutting up to make something I want.  If you wait for the manufacturers to build it, you'll wait along time.

This was a NIB Weaver locomotive being built as a UP FEF-1. Sold old parts on the bay.

It hardly screamed as I took the drill press to it! 

Are we putting the last Do-Do bird in a meat grinder because it moved,

or carefully carving a Thanksgiving feast?

O scalers, particularly 3-rail toy train operators seem to have more of a collectors mindset than HO and N modelers. I just happen to model in O and I have no worries about collector value or anything of that sort. They make thousands of these and if you are using it the way you want, even if that means chopping it up, so be it. I've bought dozens of scale Lionel and MTH engines to part out if the price was right. Chop up to your heart's desire!