Re: HOn3 engines as static display

I guess I love my Blackstones but they are just a fraction on my roster. My Westside C-16s run like tanks and you can't kill them with a stick. We have put just as many miles on a pair of WSM C-16s as we have our Blackstones. Both Blackstones have needed motors replaced and one has had to have all new electronics. The WSM C-16s just keep chugging along.

The Blackstone C-19s are great looking models but only represent a few locos. I have converted a few to other locomotives but you have to be able live with the inaccuracies. converting the Blackstone into a C-18 or C-17 is not a small job. And when you are done, the dimensions are not correct and the valve gear is wrong. They are much too big cor a C-16 conversion and can't even mention a T-12. Couldn't live without my C-21s and C-25. None of my brass engines are static displays.

My railroad has been pretty strapped for motive power to the point the RGS has been pulling locos out of the Durango deadline. They even grabbed the old Boston Coal & Fuel loco out of the weeds in Rico and shopped it to its new RGS 1 number. It was needed so badly they didn't even replace the open frame motor and have been waiting to get it back in the shop. More hours than I can count redetailing and reworking them.

The C&NW 64 (Black Hills) is hardly recognizable as the Blackstone it is. Wagon topped boiler, extended smokebox, new cab, domes, stack, tender. They can be made into a lot of things. but limiting to running them is not an option. I wouldn't trade away my brass.