Gold J1e?

Talking about this one?

http://www.lionel.com/Products/Finder/ProductDetail.cfm?ProductNumber=6-28062&expandBranch=0&Keywords=hudson&CategoryID=0&RailLineID=&CatalogId=

MTH made one also.

http://www.mthtrains.com/content/20-3040-1

I have both and boy do they look good on the shelf.  Wouldn't dare run them though.  A scratch would be disasterous. 

Scrape the gold off, you may get more than the engine is worth.

A friend has the MTH Gold one. He also has the full set of passenger cars and he RUNS it and it runs beautifully. White gloves are used to handle it but that doesn't stop some unnamed club members from jerking his chains and running their fingers along the roofs of the cars. .....(who me????).......LOL!

Theres most likely  no more then a few grains of gold in that engine, no more then $20 bucks worth it's obviously still a sharp looking locomotive.

MTH has two 18K gold-plated sets: (1) a RailKing Pennsy GG1, 4 passenger cars. and a boxcar, and (2) the Premier J1e and tender, 7 passenger cars, and the boxcar.

Lionel has the 24K gold-plated J1e and tender and a gold caboose.  No passenger cars, however.

All of them are very nice and eye-catching.

I'm not normally one for shelf queens, but I have both the GG1 Railking set, the MTH boxcar and the MTH Hudson. The Hudson in particular, is spectacular. I lent them to my club for our recent annual train show, they were in an illuminated glass showcase and they were a huge attraction. People took photos of them all weekend.

here's my Lionel model

FWIW, four or five years ago there was a "Katrina" MTH gold set for sale at an area TCA

meet. Gold Hudson (strange idea) and about eight gold cars (plastic gold). The loco shone

like, well, gold, of course - gold being what it is. The cars were dull.

Mechanically, the whole set was frozen up. The scale Hudson

and all the scale cars went for the grand total of $200 (a friend bought them).

He freed up the drivers a few days later, and the darned thing RAN. The sounds were 

gone, the smoke unit was DOA, but the motherboard (reversing unit) survived being submerged in salt water. For something like two days. Totally unexpected. The gold still

looks dumb.

THERE's a Lionel one on ebay now. I think it is up to about $850. Also that engine was plated in Westbrook, Maine about 6 miles from me.

It's not a very practical I try to run it once a year and put it back in the display case over the fireplace. They used the original tooling for the Hudson which makes the casting on the engine look dirty. The tender looks great. For looks the 18K MTH Gold Hudson has it beat. The MTH model is Proto I, so if you are one of the minority that runs their gold engines you may want the Lionel since it has TMCC (no Cruise).

Scott Smith

It's kinda weird, but in all my years of playing with trains, I've NEVER seen the Lionel gold scale Hudson in action.....probably 'cause most people keep it as a shelf queen. Though knowing it was made in 2000 like the Century Club 773, it should sound terrific.

I have the Lionel version, along with the matching caboose.  I ran it once, but my wife (who gave it to me for Christmas) took a dim view of that, so it resides on the mantel.  One of these days....

John

Mikado 4501,

If you would like I will make a video of it running this week and post it.

Scott Smith

Scott, no thanks. I've seen your video's before. Don

Is there not a color photo of Joshua Lionel Cowen with this engine behind his desk? Don

Scott, I was just kidding, I like your video's 

I like this one better!

That would be cool, thank you

I have the MTH version of the "Gold" steamer and she is amazing. The detail just leaps out. I also managed to acquire the Lionel Gold Caboose - that is also one very sharp looking piece of rolling stock. They seem to play very nicely together on the mantel

Paul

I believe that there were two MTH Railking boxcars offered, PRR and NYC.  I have had the PRR boxcar in the box (still brand new and under the train table since 2000).  LOL, it's one of those things that I forgot about.

Maybe I take it to work and put it on my bookcase along with a prewar Lionel steam engine.

Jim

Where is the museum at please?

Bill

There's also the gold-plated Big Boy MTH made for the TCA.

Bill

MTH also made a Gold Plated F3. If anyone knows where I may buy one I would be very appreciative of the information.

Paul

http://www.blackhawkmuseum.org/index.html it is located in Napa, CA

This thread has inspired me to unpack my MTH Millennium Hudson and Madisons and run them this weekend at the NJ Hi-Railers holiday show (12/2 @ 10am).  I'll post a video afterward.

Come on by and see THE Hi-Rail layout.  (And Santa will be there!)

Club link ==> http://www.njhirailers.com/

Shows link ==> http://www.njhirailers.com/show_dates_show_dates.html

I think it would be possible to gold plate a standard model for not very many $.  I can nickel plate a model for under a hundred, but am hoping to find a friend with a nickel tank.

The gold plating is probably close to a single gold atom thick, so dollar wise there is not much pure gold involved.

I have mine displayed with the 75th Anniv. Gateman. It looks awesome!

Here is the video as promised.

Scott Smith

Thank you very much Scott for your generous video  - it totally is as wicked to watch move as it is to look at in a case. The sounds are great (not surprisingly). The whistle sure is unique and the TowerCom is very nicely personalized. Now I need to find one