If anyone is interested I have a Hallmark 4500 I would like to sell. It is decorated for the #4505 and weathered, it has also been upgraded from stock version with crew and coal load. The tender has been shortened to the correct length per Karl's FMIG article from many years back. It it a nice looking engine that is heavily weighted and runs well. I would like to get $600 lout of it and would be willing to accept payments if that would help. Pictures are available if you are interested. Brad Slone
I love to see how yours turned-out. Taking a saw to mine was the scariest thing that I had done to date.
Guys, Give me the weekend, I had a bunch of pictures of it, but we recently got a new computer and apparently they did not transfer so I will have to take new ones. Karl, I can't take complete credit for shortening the tenders, as Don Wirth had already shortened the shells which is the hard work, I just had to smooth things out redetail and shorten the frame. I was nervous enough just cutting the frame, I can just imagine how nerve racking it must have been doing surgery on the shell itself, but oh what a difference it makes in the proportions and overall appearance of the engine. I will get some new photos of it up over the weekend. Brad
Guys, I was able to recover the photo's off the old hard drive take a look and see what you think. She is a very good natured engine and could use a loving home! Brad Slone
Robert, I suppose I would so long as there's not a big fee. Shoot me an email at bradslone@yahoo.com, I would be very flexible. Brad
Thats a great looking model Brad, the weathering is spot on. That tender wears the triple F well doesn't it. Wish I was first in line for it after seeing it, LOL. But I need to check myself a bit, and not try to model every single era you know.
Brad, I agree with Tom that you did a fantastic job of "smoothing" out the new joints on the tender. I can't tell where you did it, so, congratulations on a job very well done. I have fallen into the trap Tom mentions as I have locomotives and cars from steam through the 1980s merger on the Frisco, plus the BN, and BNSF eras. It started out innocently enough by buying an Atlas MP15 of BN 1003 which was an engine I was running at the time. Then I began to buy other diesels for all three of the railroads I worked for, and, voila, my storage closet looks like a hobby shop. It is a classic example of letting a camel stick its nose under the tent. Now, not only did the camel get completely inside, but the tent was destroyed because the camel was too large for the tent. Terry
Thanks for the compliments, but I must give credit to Don Wirth for shortening the tender shell itself as I don't think I could muster the nerve to have done it myself. To smooth out the joint I take paint, any color will do but something that will contrast works best and paint it with a brush thick over the jointed area. Then I wet sand it till almost gone, some times I have to do it several times and build it up, but I've found that you can really hide seams that way. As far as getting the multi era thing, I struggled with it for many years and still do, I know were a Athearn GP15 could be had cheap and it is all I can do not to pick it up. They always were one of my favorite engines, they were typically the power of choice when the railroad was switching here in town. By the way Tom I love how yours all look, but then again your stuff always looks top notch. What I have done to keep me from getting scattered out over multiple eras is use a copy of the 1943 ORER that the NMRA put out a few years back. If I can't find the car in there typically I wont get it and I absolutely try not to buy anything past 44-45. That's not to say there's not a lot of cool stuff out there that I would love to have, but I just can't afford it all and it's a good tool that helps restrict me from purchasing anything and everything that catches my eye. It ain't easy, but it's the only way I have found to keep my tent intact! Brad
Brad, That's very nice work. What did you do to repair your tender trucks? I never could get mine to a state where they would operate reliably. They seemed to derail even when standing still. I gave up, and bought a pair of Overland Buckeye trucks. I lettered mine for the 4505 as well, since it was one of the two 4500's to receive a coonskin plate. Perhaps some minor mishap preciptated the change. I strayed a bit from orthodoxy, and I painted my roof red. I really like that look. http://www.frisco.org/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=4510&d=1175563697
Karl, Thanks for the compliment, but about the only thing I can take credit for is the paint and weathering. Your 4505 looks really sharp as well, correcting the tender really make all the difference. I still don't know that I would have had the nerve to make the first cut. I would say you are correct about the two getting coonskins beacuse of mishaps. I agree about the red roof's, I think everything else I have is painted that way. Brad
