Fun with brass, who here remembers PFM and other great brass importers

centralRR Feb 22, 2013

  1. JPIII

    JPIII TrainBoard Member

    71
    25
    7
    I have reclaimed my Tenshodo 2-8-2 from the repair guy......8 months was long enough to wait.
    It is missing a bit of valve gear. The pic shows the right hand side of the engine.....cause it ain't there on the left.
    I have no idea where to look for the 2 missing bits.....the thin rod & the lever (cam?)at the driver(. Any leads would be highly appreciated.
    This is only one problem with this 55 year old loco.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

    22,210
    49,629
    253
    I found it.
    [​IMG]
     
  3. Scott Wendt

    Scott Wendt New Member

    6
    0
    4
    Some time, when I have time, I will post some photos of some of the brass that we have sitting in our lobby. The company I work for use to build a lot of brass for PFM, United, and a bunch of others... Its always great fun to dig around in the back of our display cases and see what we can find!

    Scott Wendt
    Director of Sales and New Product Development
    Korea Brass Co., Ltd.
     
  4. Petey

    Petey TrainBoard Member

    154
    0
    18
    It too was once equipped with PFM sound -------Have you ever found a way to access any of the sound in these PFM locos, without the PFM sound unit?
    [​IMG][​IMG]
     
  5. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

    2,626
    5,747
    69
    Here is a video of an 1958-1961 run of a united PFM D&RGW L-125/131.
    I have had this "Mature" United, PFM L-131 for going on 20 years, research shows it is one of 8 built between 1958-1961. After 19 years of dis-assembly, It finally came home a couple weeks ago. With much help and advise from Don Wirth, and a couple others, she is alive and pulling quite well, actually better than I would have ever thought.
    Over the years people have brought model steam locomotives over here, and they generally would not stretched the drawbars out on trains, they should handle up the grades. But this old girl has changed my opinion on model steam, again with Don's help and advise, it handled 47 cars and a caboose up a ruling 1.6% grade, she did struggled and slipped a bit, but she just would not give up or quit, just dug in, and went to work, no one here could hardly believed what she did. It would have easily taken 4 Geeps or 3 SD's to do what this old loco did. I did 4 trips around the MRR and she pulled them every time.
    Now a paint job, and just maybe I can talk Keith into putting some sound in it, and really bring her to life.

    Here we go;

    http://youtu.be/GnzYv4Qm81w
     
  6. montanan

    montanan TrainBoard Member

    1,153
    2,034
    39
    Not all brass is just for show. Great video. I have an old PFM brass Z-5 Yellowstone that I had to take apart to custom paint for the NP. I acquired it in the early 80's. At one time it was equipped with a PFM sound system, and in recent years was converted to DCC with Tsunami sound (I still use DC on my layout) and I call it my "Traveling locomotive", which I take with me when visiting other modelers. It still runs flawlessly as it has been maintained and lubricated, and run on a regular basis to keep things lubricated. I never tested it in a grade like o the video, but while running it on a model railroad club layout, we had 172 cars behind it and it didn't break a sweat. We would have put more cars on the train, but we ran out of cars. I am not a brass collector by any means, but I do have a few and all of them have been custom painted and run like a Swiss clock.
     
  7. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

    2,626
    5,747
    69
    Another DC Dinosaur :) :)

    I am still DC as well, it is amazing how good these old engines perform if you take care of them. Currently am in the planning stages of installing Tsunami sound in this thing too. Does it work OK in regular DC mode? Have a couple Spectrum steamers, and it doesnt seem to have the chuff rate right with the wheel rotation. But, understand there is an adjustment for that as well.
    Not a brass collector either. But I'm glad to have this one.
    If your ever down Grand Junction way look us up we will still be running DC I am sure :)
    Thanks for the comments and info.
     
  8. Southern Oregonian

    Southern Oregonian TrainBoard Member

    704
    4
    18
    I'm still in DC too. I have to many nice locos that can't be or would be to hard to convert. I got into brass more by necessity then anything else. The SP guys in a group I'm apart of keep telling me that brass is cheap-except that when it comes to my beloved SP&S I keep finding myself paying a premium. I'm not complaining since my SP&S brass looks amazing, but for the cost of 1 car I could get 9-10 Athearn cars and for the cost of my last SP&S Brass loco I could have gotten 10-15 Athearns or 5-6 BLIs, but correct plastic SP&S stuff is hard to come by. The price difference between SP&S brass and major RR names is staggering.

    JP
     
  9. Petey

    Petey TrainBoard Member

    154
    0
    18
    Hello JPIII,
    Try Greenway Products.
    Go on eBay and search for steam loco parts.

    It is amazing how long these guys can keep a project and still not have started on it. I have read of guys who have waited 3 to 6 years, on a regular basis, for repair. I don't buy a loco so that it can be out-of-hand for years.
    Good luck.
     
  10. Petey

    Petey TrainBoard Member

    154
    0
    18
    Hello JP,
    First, there's an easy way to get into DCC; buy a MRC Tech 6 and use it. It real hard to make the transition; this way, disconnect your current DC pack, and hook the Tech 6 in its place. It's a great idea. You then have access to all the sounds in your DCC loco, and they will run as though you have conventional DCC.
    Check it out and get some DCC/Sound locos.

    As you probably know, SP&S locos are expensive because the market for that road is quit small. That road also had big power, which makes it desirable to the relative few who model it. Was the expensive loco perhaps a Sunset 4-8-4 or a Challenger?
     
  11. Southern Oregonian

    Southern Oregonian TrainBoard Member

    704
    4
    18
    Thats awesome. I have a few sound locos I'd like to run/silence from time to time so thanks. The Challenger was up there, but cheaper then the W&R ones. At least Boweser and special run BLI diesels keep us going. I have to say though that nothing comes close to the track effort of brass.
     
  12. Southern Oregonian

    Southern Oregonian TrainBoard Member

    704
    4
    18
    I should probably mention that Sunset has gotten better over the years. I got my 700 Northern a few years ago and failure was an option back then. My sound and DCC equipped order became no sound and DC when that locomotive failed it's shop test run (part of the reason I've been buying from this train shop for years now) and then a miss aligned drive wheel snapped one of the rods. I got replacement parts and it runs fine now, but the challenger has been problem free since day one and it IS DCC with sound. Then again ALL my steamers get oiled on a regular basis, running or sitting. I should also point out I have 2 hybrids too by BLI. The 4449 and a track mobile. Aside from blowing the DCC component on the 4449 (BLI fixed it and returned MY loco to me), they both run great and I like the switch for the smoke.
     

Share This Page