Quality of BuddyL G?

[hoofe116]

What sort of quality are the BuddyL g gauges? What scale? Thoughts?

Les W.

[stebbycentral]

Ain't no such animal.  Not true Buddy-L anyway.  Buddy-L was a line of push trains manufactured in the 1920's and 1930's by the Moline Pressed Steel Company.  They were way larger than G, close to 1:12 scale I think. 

There is a company called Buddy-K that makes Buddy-L reproductions.  True Buddy-L brings big $$$ on the collector market. 

BTW, the quality was excellent.

[altterrain]

Les,

The BuddyL 2-6-2 are G scale, 1:22.5. The cars are identical to Bachmann big haulers. Vic Smith had one and sold it (and now his wife bought a whole set ). Tim Brien down in Oz has kitbashed a few and modified the drivetrain to beef it up. Unless you like tinkering to get it to run well, I wouldn't advise it.

-Brian 

[vsmith]

They are OK for dead flat layouts pulling a couple of cars, for that they are fine. Beyond that it will be limited, require alot of tweeking to get to run right, for the most part I would recommend a Big Hauler set over it.

Yes, my missis did get her own set, but I'm the guy thats gotta figure out how to get it to go around the steep grades on my layout. I have some ideas, nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more

[Ray Dunakin]

I have one. I adjusted the gauge of the wheels and added 3 pounds of lead for traction, and it handles my 4% grades OK so far. I also replaced the pathetic headlight with battery powered "warm white" LED, added some details, and repainted it to look more like a real loco and less like a toy. My main complaint is that the sound (which was excellent) died for no apparent reason.

On the other hand, my layout's not complete so I haven't been able to run it very often yet, so it's possible that I simply haven't had it in operation long enough to discover any major issues.

Either way, I'm sure it's not as good as a Bachmann Annie would be.

[cabbage]

Hoofe,

Rather than waste your time and effort, as it seems to me that your layout is probably going to be a US style logging layout could I suggect you examine the following sites. But before you do so -put your cards and cheque book in the safe!!!

This is Brandbright, the oldest supplier of garden railway items in the UK.
http://www.brandbright.co.uk/catindex.htm

This is Garden Railway Specialists, the biggest supplier in the UK.
http://www.grsuk.com/index.asp?info/welcome.htm

This is Ozark Miniatures.
http://www.ozarkminiatures.com/Scripts/default.asp

This is IP Engineering who supply power chassis and other things. Look under "Home Builder" parts and "Mamod and MSS mods"
http://www.ipengineering.co.uk/

Finally here is my home page. Have a good look around and study the section marked "Kitchen Sink Engineering", (yes everything there has been made on the piece of worktop between the cooker and the sink). I would also advise you to to tour the webring to see other examples of scratchbuilding.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sheila.capella/cabbage/default.html

regards

ralph

[tangerine-jack]

Buddy L cars are very nice, I have many of them and repaint or bash them for my own railroad.  For the price they can't be beat.  Quality and detail are surprizingly high.

The locos on the other hand, need a lot of modifications to be useful for our purposes.  They cost less to be sure, but then if you add in the time and money it takes to make them work as well as a B'mann, they are no deal at all.

[Capt Bob Johnson]

TJ - Is the buddy L what you're running over there??? Good to hear from you!   Sounds like you've been keeping your head down, good oh!   Any idea when the deployment is scheduled to end?