A painted Hallmark 4503 is on ebay right now. Opening bid $750. The ebay number is 320824226895. The paint job looks good except for the white tires.
Right church, but wrong pew. Too bad...4503 was coal burner, and it received the Frisco Faster Freight wing.
Also the eBay model looks to be black instead of blue (If it's trying to be one of the "Meteor" oil burners 4500-4501-4502). Tom
Tom, You are absolutely correct about the incorrect number. Good catch, I did not pick up on that. I can't believe a professional painter would make that mistake. The color did look like blue on my monitor, but that is all immaterial since the number is wrong. Too bad. Terry
It's a nice paint job, but wrong for either a coal or oil burner. No gray cab roof, stripe around sand dome and no number there. Some painters paint the engine the way the customer says to. Not to mention the whitewalls.
Just curious--If the price were "right" is there anybody here who would buy that engine, even though the paint isn't correct? Or in other words how much does the incorrect paint job devalue it or turn off buyers. Tom
I would not buy it since it is not correct. If I am going to pay that much money for something, I expect it to be correct. I am not interested in it anyway as I have the Meteor and FFF versions of the GP models. I am watching it out of curiosity to see what it would bring as I have an unptd. Hallmark 4500 which I certainly don't need now because of the GP models. Terry
I've had my fill of messing with Hallmark 4500s and wouldn't buy it at any price. Once you've had a GPM you'll never go back.
I agree that the difference in quality between the GPM and Hallmark 4500s is like a Lexus to a Chevy. I also know that not everyone can afford to buy a GPM (Lexus). Please don't anyone take offense of my using a Chevy as a comparison (I drive a Chevy van, Ford pickup and a Saturn coupe) . I am only saying that we have to buy what we can afford. I remember when my Hallmark 4500 came in the mail years ago, I thought I had just received the best gift I had ever gotten. Since then I have learned of its deficiencies and for that reason I bought the GPMs. I wish I had known of the GPM project because I would not have bought the Hallmark when I did. Hind sight is always better than foresight. Having said all that, I do think I would buy a Hallmark if one were available and I knew I couldn't get a GPM. This is assuming, of course, it was painted correctly. Terry
I wish there were Glacier Parks in N scale, but buying just one, I dunno? I like the blue Meteor oil burners and the black 4503-4524 "Wings" and I like how big they looked in the Clark Hungerford simplifed scheme. And the "Will Rogers" 4519. And, and and... Tom
Glacier Park Models. They imported a run of 4500s a year or two back. They offered the three oil burners, a 4503,4521 and 4524. They all had either the Meteor paint for the oil burners, FFF on the coal burners or there were all versions in the Hungerford paint. Also a 4519 painted for the Will Rogers. They were outstanding models, the equal or better than the PFM Crown brass models from Japan. You will see one pop up on ebay occasionally and you can readily see the difference. They were pricey to be sure, but are beautiful runners, full cab interior, all lighting works, including the class lights and are dead on accurate. www.glacierparkmodels.com
