The Home Machinist!

I don't know what to tell you; maybe others here can suggest something. You can look through the listings on that web site and see what prices are there. I know of several newly built large engines that sold for 25K; smaller ones go for less. Also look on the "sold" page.
https://www.discoverlivesteam.com/disco ... .5sold.htm

MysteryTrain wrote:

Thanks Fred,
What do you think my initial asking price should be?

Something is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay. First off you need to know if the locomotive is actually 7 - 1/4" gauge or 7 - 1/2" gauge as that will determine your market. Also without a tender and no place to test steam the locomotive a buyer would be taking a gamble on whether or not it is operable.

If you ask too high a price you will scare off prospective buyers. I think your best bet is to solicit offers and see what happens. It is a really neat model, but not really practical for running at clubs where there would be a lot of traffic. Having a single large driver it will be limited in the amount of weight it can haul. And it will tend to be a slippery beastie.
Keith

I noticed from the photos that the water glass is missing. You should try to replace that and then see if you can hook up a water hose to it and at least see if it will hold water or not. Other wise a buyer will figure it needs a boiler and price will drop to near nothing.

The Salter type safety valves look true to scale.....I'm not sure how practical they may be as well.

Keith

Here are some pictures of the measurements of the wheel distances - I'm pretty sure it actually is a 7.5"

You are measuring the wrong places on the wheels.
You need to measure from the outside of the flange on one wheel to the outside of the flange on the opposite wheel. The track gauge is the distance between the rails, so you need to measure the parts of the wheels that drop down in between the rails.

If you're in Vancouver, then you should take this over to the British Columbia Society of Model Engineers in Confederation Park in Burnaby (https://www.bcsme.org/). Those folks are among the best of clubs and can give you lots of information. You might even find a buyer there. They'll also confirm the gauge and what ever is needed to get it operational. They might even help you steam it up.

3/4" wheel width, and it looks like the face-to-face outside is 8-5/8". That would give you a 7-1/8" back-to-back and being built in Vancouver BC makes me think it probably is 7.5" ga.

LVRR2095 wrote:You are measuring the wrong places on the wheels.
You need to measure from the outside of the flange on one wheel to the outside of the flange on the opposite wheel. The track gauge is the distance between the rails, so you need to measure the parts of the wheels that drop down in between the rails.

That's one thing I actually did know

I just put the full measurements up there in the event I was measuring from the flange wrong etc....

It looks like the first flange "starts" at 5/8' and "ends" at 8 1/8" which should give me a track gauge of 7.5"

That looks to be correct right?

Greg_Lewis wrote:If you're in Vancouver, then you should take this over to the British Columbia Society of Model Engineers in Confederation Park in Burnaby (https://www.bcsme.org/). Those folks are among the best of clubs and can give you lots of information. You might even find a buyer there. They'll also confirm the gauge and what ever is needed to get it operational. They might even help you steam it up.

Thanks, I'll try them.

jcbrock wrote:3/4" wheel width, and it looks like the face-to-face outside is 8-5/8". That would give you a 7-1/8" back-to-back and being built in Vancouver BC makes me think it probably is 7.5" ga.

That's my thoughts too.

Fred_V wrote:I don't know what to tell you; maybe others here can suggest something. You can look through the listings on that web site and see what prices are there. I know of several newly built large engines that sold for 25K; smaller ones go for less. Also look on the "sold" page.
https://www.discoverlivesteam.com/disco ... .5sold.htm

To follow up on Fred's suggestion, actually you can email Jim at DLS, and ask him directly about valuation. He usually is very responsive and may well call you to talk about value. He probably knows more about pricing and comparables than anybody around, these days. Look for his contact info on the front page of his web site.

Glenn