Last November, I purchased my first brass model locomotives. This Mantua "Yard Goat" switcher, was one of the two. Now, as you can see, this is an 0-4-0 "Camelback" steam locomotive, like this Reading locomotive, that survives today:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Strasburg_-_Pennsylvania_Railroad_1187.jpg)
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/2a/39/2e/2a392ea19689329d79db1d011c9e5258.jpg)
Anyway, this model, I was ecstatic to have found the model, because it was this type of model locomotive, that came in kit form, and was the starting point for Many, MANY Model Railroaders, after WW2. This was the most common locomotive, because the kit was relatively cheap, compared to other locomotives of the era. The next cheapest locomotive, was $29.50 in kit form. in 1953, This locomotive I have, in kit form, was $24.50. In today's money, this locomotive, in kit form, would cost $224.57, and the next cheapest locomotive, would cost $270.40. Model Railroading, was NOT an inexpensive hobby, back then, and Model Railroaders complain about the costs today!
It's funny about these, because Mantua brought back the "Yard Goat" as a Plastic and Metal, Fully-Assembled model, as well as in Kit form, about 35 or so years ago. Then, Model Rectifier Corporation (MRC), (one of the biggest DCC control system and model train transformer manufacturers), now owns Model Power, which also had the rights to Mantua's brand name and designs, from 2001 onward (when the Tyler Family got out of the business for the second and final time!). MRC, has recently brought back this locomotive (plastic superstructure wise), but with an 0-6-0 wheel arrangement, for $129.99 at Trainworld (this is in NO way, a plug for Trainworld, MRC, Mantua, or ANYBODY, and I have NOT been paid to point that out. I'm just pointing it out). It's cheaper for the 0-6-0 Camelback by Mantua, from Trainworld, vs. the Original "Yard Goat." I'm REALLY Surprised.
Back to the model I purchased. I have to admit, I bought it on a Shoestring, Hail Mary purchase, made out to an elderly man from Bremerton, with two other locomotives, all paid for in change! He actually won the dealer's show prize, at the Boeing Employee's Model Railroad Club show and swap-meet in Kent. I was grateful to have purchased the little engine, and will hopefully start its rebuilding soon (as soon as I can find "stock" parts for it, I'll get to work). It's a great model, and I wouldn't trade it, as I feel this connection with it- how it was lovingly assembled years ago, by an early model railroader, how time's not been kind to the little loco, and that I feel I owe it respect, doing so, is returning it to a "stock" state. I won't repaint it. I won't remotor it with a can motor, I will just get it cleaned up mechanically, redetail it, and keep it "stock." I owe No. 123, my Mantua "Yard Goat," that dignity, to be maintained in operating condition, as a monument to the Early "Boomer" Model Railroaders, and their struggles to Establish the Hobby.
No comments:
Post a Comment