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One of these just sold this afternoon on eBay for around $250.00; (hope someone here was the successful winner). I didn't bid on it, as I figured it would sell for a much higher amount; $250 seems rather low to me. A quick check shows many HO locos (along with a ton of O scale steam) selling for more... what am I missing here?

Mark in Oregon

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I lost a post somewhere.  That was an excellent price, even though the handrails had not been inserted.

I have six, not counting the ones I converted to SP Mikados.  I would say a fair price for a good one that runs is $350-400.  If I didn't have six already I would have bid $300.

I found myself wondering about the handrails.  They are threaded 0-80, and it takes about ten minutes to insert them.  Maybe someone drilled out the threads?

For an obscure protoype, this one is quite popular.  A little extra work and you can have an SP or MoPac Berk.

@bob2 posted:

I lost a post somewhere.  That was an excellent price, even though the handrails had not been inserted.

I have six, not counting the ones I converted to SP Mikados.  I would say a fair price for a good one that runs is $350-400.  If I didn't have six already I would have bid $300.

I found myself wondering about the handrails.  They are threaded 0-80, and it takes about ten minutes to insert them.  Maybe someone drilled out the threads?

For an obscure protoype, this one is quite popular.  A little extra work and you can have an SP or MoPac Berk.

HA!  SIX!  You need 1 more so you have one for every day of the week!

@bob2 posted:

1. That was an excellent price, even though the handrails had not been inserted.

2.  I have six, not counting the ones I converted to SP Mikados.  I would say a fair price for a good one that runs is $350-400.  If I didn't have six already I would have bid $300.

3.  I found myself wondering about the handrails.  They are threaded 0-80, and it takes about ten minutes to insert them.  Maybe someone drilled out the threads?

4.  For an obscure protoype, this one is quite popular.  A little extra work and you can have an SP or MoPac Berk.

1. That's what I thought. I once paid that much for a Lionel PRR 4-4-2: it's a nice model, but not brass or historic, like the Lobaugh...

2. 6!?! Wow ... you da man!

3. Hopefully whoever bought it is a forum member, and will enlighten us...

4. I suppose because it's one of the few (?) 2-8-4s offered back in the day...?

Mark in Oregon

Thanks.  I have this "thing" for haystack tenders.  I think I have one of every type the SP ever had except for one particularly ugly variant.  I even have the 90SC-6, a one-of-a-kind made from an MM-2 tender.

The locomotive has the wrong sand dome.  B&M had two variants, and SP got the earlier version with shorter sand dome.  And while they came with Alligator crossheads and Baker gear, we can't find photos of that arrangement with haystack tender.  But, as you know, I take artistic license.

I put all my Berks in one thread here last year.  I think I even included the Adams C&O Berk.

I was going to give you a link, or bump the thread.  Couldn't find it.  So, here:Adams Berk 5K-Line Berk

Top is Adams sand-cast (doorstop).  The tender is too short, but it too is sand cast brass.  Looks like the aluminum tenders supplied with the A-N Mountain.  It is in fact the correct tender for the Adams model, but way too short for a good resemblance to the real thing.

The lower berk is my K-Line.  You can see the unpainted brass boiler belly in this shot.  Later, the teeny motor was replaced with an 8000 series Pittman in the firebox.  A really good looking model, except I am sure it is too small.  All my other models tower over it, including some switchers.

I will post the Lobaugh models if more than one forumite is interested.  I think I was thinking of MTJ, where I have threads with photos of all my models.  Easier to post here.

Some of my Berks are in Ted Hikel's thread of 2014, but Photobucket has put giant "P"s on them.  I am using Shutterfly now, and so far they have been as good as gold for photo hosting.

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  • Adams Berk 5
  • K-Line Berk

Okay.  Soon as I light off the big computer.  The Lobaugh Berk is a nice springboard for various prototypes, including the MoPac/IGN, as well as the above SP variant.

Then I got creative, with frame extensions, modified boilers for Mikados, substitute frames for Scale Craft boilers, and even a PRR "Hippo."  And a huge SP MC-6 that did not make the Cab Forward thread due to lack of interest.

I have not cut a Berk boiler to do a Mike.  Let me measure to see if it works.

The smokebox and firebox have to be replaced, so for me it was always easier to slit a 2" tube for the main barrel.   It might hurt to trash a good Berk boiler.  One with a smashed smokebox would be a candidate.

Lobaugh "spun" the boiler barrels.  Their solder flanges were rarely bigger than 1/16".  My "flanges" (inner rings) are usually over an inch long, and pinned before solder.  When I use a Lobaugh barrel, I add the inner rings.

So readers know what Jay and I are talking about, let me post a Mike first.  This is Berkshire only to the extent of the frame itself, which has had both ends replaced with Lost Wax Mike castings from Pearce/Stevenson.

I call it "blocked out" because it is a starting point - assembled in sort of a "short block" form.  Boiler is one of the Lobaugh spinnings, but it was originally a Mike, not a Berk.  I will measure the Berk boiler in a bit - might be a bit tricky, because I am not sure I have a bare Berk boiler laying around.

Drivers on this one are LocoWorks coined brass - really good PRR drivers from before he started plating the axles and pins.  After the plating process, pressing the components together resulted in unusable dimensional excursions - drivers so pressed need inserts for axles and pins to again function.  Rods are just junk, applied because they were at my fingertips.  Stevenson has masters for clevised rods, matching the SP Mike.  They are as good as CLW rods, in my (humble?) estimation.

DSC03032

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Images (1)
  • DSC03032

I bet Carey has a few of these.  Here are my MoPac and IGN versions.  I don't know if you  can tell, but the MoPac is Royal Blue.  I have no idea whether MoPac ever used blue on steam, but T&P did, and they were related somehow.

And the tenders are too short.  Easy to fix if I ever want to, but then I couldn't use the neat cast Lobaugh underframes.

1912IGN Berk

IGN obviously needs a motor, ash pans,  and some dummy driver springs, and maybe some tender work, but these things get worked on once every decade, so sooner or later . . .

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Images (2)
  • 1912
  • IGN Berk

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