# No such thing as a "free puppy"



## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

My Uncle graciously gave me a Bachmann B&O Big Hauler G-Scale train set he had languishing in his basement this Christmas. It had a 4-6-0 loco, tender, and a combine and observation car painted in B&O Royal Blue. I was totally delighted. I immediately set about converting the paint scheme of the loco to match the ET&WNC paint scheme of the RR I model to the #11 and I'm very happy with the results of that. 
I then thought I'd convert the observation car to match the ET&WNC Jackson Sharp cars I already own to make an additional observation car for the rear of the train I already have. This was a lot of fun. The part about a "free puppy" hit me tonight when I was winding down the project and added up the paints, the dry transfer letters, the pinstripes, etc. and realized that I spent almost as much on the conversion as I would've if I'd just bought another ET&WNC coach. {laugh} Who said model railroading makes monetary sense anyway?
The photo shows my painted coach compared to the stock combine.

http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/...ccoach.jpg


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## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

No free puppy. But the Observation car is full of pride that the Combine lacks.
Nice job.
Ralph


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Sometimes things don't always end of cheap but the results look nice. Later RJD


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

painted in B&O Royal Blue 
Yep - nice job, and talking about free: isn't the Royal Blue scheme the rare and much-sought-after version ?


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Is there really anything in Large scale is *that* rare and *that* sought after?  (especially in the realm of Bachmann passenger cars?) 
I doubt it.. 
if the B&O scheme is in fact more rare than other schemes, it might be worth a whole $30 instead of the usual $20!  
in other words..I wouldnt sweat it!  

I happily hack, cut and paint "valuable" LGB cars..no biggie.. 
if you never plan to sell the car, its "dollar value" to other people is meaningless.. 
but its (non-monetary) value to you, in a paintscheme you personally value the most, is all that really matters.. 

SRW, 
nice job on the paintjob! 
looks great! 

Scot


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice job, but I thought you were going to say when you put that Blue Comet Bug Hauler engine on the tracks and ran it being shocked by the high pitch motor whine those older early Bug Hauler motors generated, that was my experience anyways, I thought it was broke, nope they all sounded that way... LOL


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

I researched the $$ potential of the Royal Blue set before deciding to repaint it to ET&WNC livery. Decided I would need to hold on to it for about 200 years before it would possibly be worth what my uncle paid for it in the 90's. I could've taken the time to sell it off piece by piece on eBay or all together as it had all the original packaging [even the Bach Man comic book], but that seemed like a pain in the a-- and I thought it would kind of dishonor my Uncle to just turn around and sell something he gave to me. I may store all the packaging in the attic as looking back over Lionel, GI Joe, Barbie, Matchbox, etc. it seems the packaging ends up worth more than the toy.

Here's a link to how the engine repaint came out before I added some more details and weathering. I already had a #12 Annie which will pull my "varnish" so I wanted to model #11 which was the real workhorse on the line and it will pull a small train of boxcar, sapwood car and asphalt tank car so as not to tax its cheesy 3rd gen driveline which I rebuilt using all the tips available on-line like Geroge Schreyer's page. The motor is now securely mounted and lubed with improvements made to the sound board. I'd have to say what I've done to it is worth far more than if I'd sold off the B&O train and just bought ready made stuff. 


http://s762.photobucket.com/albums/xx267/flatrat62/B and O to ET and WNC/


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice! 
I think it looks _better_ than it did before! 

Scot


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

Thanks. That was the plan. I know there was a real-life Royal Blue train but I don't think Bachmann made much of an attempt to faithfully model it. They just painted everything blue slapped B&O on it and called it done. Kind of a fantasy model in my view. 
I scored a "Franks nursery and crafts gondola cheap on eBay and repainted it to one of the ET&WNC's high side gondola's which also took a fantasy model and turned it into a more faithful reproduction. It's been a lot of fun this winter working on them.


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

Royal Blue's are on Evil Bay pretty frequently!! I just had two of the engines which the gears went out of sent to Barry's and he re-furbished em so they would run again!! (not his excellent conversion) but the gears were striped out of em, and he got em to where I can run them again. They may wind up on the Evil Bay for sale as I have one complete set and the two engines which have NO tenders. thought I might run a double or triple header with them? Regal


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

Yep. That was what I found looking up Royal Blue trains. They didn't seem particularly rare and it didn't seem like they were selling for much more than what my Uncle paid for it new. 

If you want to sell yours as a set in the original packaging I got the original packages, transformer, original track and comic book I'll sell you for 100 bucks [laugh!!]


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

They didn't seem particularly rare 
OK. OK. It must have been a few years ago when someone ewas trying to find some!


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

I wonder if it might have been the CNJ's Blue Comet instead of the B&O Royal Blue they were looking for. 

Seems like Bachmann may have only made one million of that model instead of the two million they made of all the others [laugh!]


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Did you enjoy coverting the car? Do you get some satisfaction or pride in the finished product. Then it was worth it.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Great job on the re-do, making it a one of a kind, must surely have increased the value! 

Murph's law; Looking for; scarce, selling; everywhere! 

But hey! This isn't a collectors club, we run our trains! 

So... Great job! 

John


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Yes, a very nice job.









Well done. You can be right proud..


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## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

I've repainted 3 of the "Royal Blue" cars so far. One still in the works. They are pretty common and not too sought after.
The last two I bought on eBay I paid less than $10 each..........with metal wheels.
Ralph


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

Yes. I did have a great time repainting the observations coach and it's turned our rather nicely I think. Had a surprise visit from the very same Uncle who gave me the train yesterday and he was travelling back from FL to his home in MD. He was very happy with the work I did on the car and enjoyed playing with my trains a bit. He said he's going to pack all his American Flyer stuff up [in the original boxes he still has all of] and it thinking of selling it all on Craigslist. Told him I would like the "right of first refusal" on that project. My brother collects trains in a much larger way than I do and he may wish to buy his collection as well.

Anyway, the other neat thing about the former B&O observation coach is that it has a cool rear railing on it with a lighted round B&O sign on it that I plan to build a lantern to fit over the bulb in place of the round placard. Should look cool with a tail lamp and I intend on building a small green and white striped awning for the overhang on the back like they had on the "Azalea" observation car on the ET& WNC.


The other neat thing is the B&O coach had a 9 volt battery powering it's lights. I like this for two reasons. The are always on full power even when I run the train at slow 'scale' speed whereas the other Jackson Sharp Combine and Coach I have had pickups from the track. These cars drag like they've got an anchor even after applying dielectric grease to the pickups as well as the aformentioned hardly glowing lights. I plan on removing the pickups and wiring connectors forward to the other cars from the battery pack on the coach and running a Lithium 9 volt or maybe running a rechargeable battery pack. All of these things are worth far more to me than leaving it stock.

The B&O Combine car is slated to be converted into a fictitious Jitney/Railbus similar to the one Aristocraft has. I plan on shortening the combine a bit between the side doors and the end of the car and adding a motorblock and build a truck front end for it. The ET&WNC had a Jitney made from a Peerless Truck and a former Johnson City Trolley car in the 20's. That will be a loose interpretation of that railbus. The fun never stops!


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

After thought. Here's the former Franks Nursery and Crafts Gondola I got on eBay for 20 bucks. It's now a sapwood car they brought wood down to the tannery in Johnson City in. They did a lot of business in this area.


http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx267/flatrat62/ETWNCgondolasapwoodcar.jpg


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