Best Friend of Charleston on sale at Lionel.com

[1688torpedo]

 Hello All!     Lionel is now marketing the "Best friend of Charleston" on their website. Looks very interesting & appealing. Hopefully this is not a one shot deal & they come out with the Tom Thumb,The Stourbridge Lion of which there is a replica at Honesdale,Pa in the County Museum,& the America, which was the sister of the Stourbridge Lion. Will be interesting to see how well it sells. Take Care.

[Anonymous]

Prior to seeing this post, I had never heard anything about Lionel producing models of trains of this vintage (although being a prewar/postwar guy, I don't follow the news of what the current manufacturers are coming out with all that closely, so could have missed it).  Seeing the title for this topic, I actually thought that this was a joke.  I'm very happy to see that it is not!  This looks like an extremely cool model.  I think it will probably sell well due to its uniqueness.  There's nothing else like it on the market right now.  My only complaint is that it doesn't include figures.  On a large "normal" engine, the crew is hidden in the cab and so it is not a necessity to have a miniature crew in a model.  But, to run this model as-is would invariably give the impression of having a runaway train.  None of the manufacturers have ever sold powered handcars without figures, so what's the difference here?

[lckiii]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

This will be the perfect set to run on the small 0-27 layout I am building!!! 

[dbaker48]

That is really nice looking, a little priciy (typical).  I took agree drastic need of figures.

[nblum]

This is actually a suprisingly low price, considering that this is a hand assembled brass model, not an injection molded or diecast plastic or metal model with lesser detail.  It's also probably a small run of a few hundred models, maybe a thousand at most.  This means fewer models to spread the overhead costs of tooling.  But the main reason brass models are expensive is that they are hand assembled.  Look at locos by SMR if you want to see typical brass prices in three rail O gauge, which are in the $1,200 plus range.  That said, we have to see what the quality and detail are on the final product before saying it's a "bargain."

[highrailjon]

 I'm sure it would'nt be that hard to add some Arttista figures to it. I think a sound system is the hold out for me. It would be like watching a porno flick with no sound!!!

[mrregal]

Lionel had a model of the Best Friend of Charleston on display at the November 2006 Train show in Charleston SC. Here is a link to the article that appeared the local newspaper.

 http://archives.postandcourier.com/archive/arch03/1103/arc11131445789.shtml

Here is a link from the same paper about Lionel making the Best Friend of Charleston

http://archives.postandcourier.com/archive/arch05/1205/arc12222761197.shtml

and finaly here is an article about Lionel marketing the Best Friend of Charleston which appeared this May in the local paper

http://archives.postandcourier.com/archive/arch07/0307/arc03214195685.shtml 

I saw the model at the show and I was impressed with the detail. 

[Brutus]

Okay - where was I when this was posted???  This is so cool!  I just showed it to my wife online and got the info that if I get "that" then she gets a new chair!  Well, hmmmm.... OK!  I agree, I'll bet there are some figures that would really fill this out.  One thing, the newspaper story indicated the set would come with 3 passenger cars instead of just one.  I guess they split it up to make it less expensive?  I figure I'll need 2 extra passenger cars to go with the set.  Wife might be getting 2 chairs!!!

Will this be available through retailers, or is it only available directly from Lionel?  I suspect it's only direct, since it's not in the catalog(s).

[Anonymous]

Online deal only. Order quick!

[sir james I]

It WAS on line only.  It is now available for dealers to sell. And it is small,seen it.

[Brutus]

Yeah, says it's 9.5 inches long in total.  I guess those cars to be about 3 inches long?  That's about right.  I had an HO Clinton Dewitt and it was tiny compared to my modern deisel and other steam loco.  Anyway, I ordered it - I'll post pics when it comes.

[lckiii]

Just got mine yesterday.

 

My first brass locomotive.

 

It is tiny, but excpetionally detailed.  Comes with the linker pins bent in place between the locomotive, tender, and included car.  

 

My first non-postwar loco.  Boy is it quiet!

 

 Did notice a marred surface on the underside and for the life of me I can not figure out how to make it travel in the foward direction.  It is only wantign to travelso the locomotive is pushing the tender and car.

 

 

[Brutus]

My set comes tomorrow - can't wait!  Now I have to get some track out and maybe set it up on the kitchen table for a while!

[Brutus]

Got mine today - need to put up a loop of track ASAP.  Per instructions, you change the direction of the motor by moving a little box on top of the bigger box on the tender car - just FYI.

[lckiii]

You read the instructions!?!?!?!

[Brutus]

My wife and I were up to about 11 last night playing with this thing - not in a good way

Firstly, I read those news articles stating that it was going to include 3 passenger cars, then was sad to see they only included 1 for the price.  So, I bought 2 additional passenger cars.  They attach together with little scale pins.  Well, I've got a little tremor in my hand and can't see close up very well, but together, my wife and I managed to get these cars pinned and the train together by about 10:30.  Then we tried to run it.  This locomotive has absolutely zero traction.  They didn't include a traction tire and there is no magnetraction.  I believe they cut it down to just the one car because of this problem.  I removed one of the passenger cars and, at about 1/2 throttle on my Z1000, it started moving and eventually ran for about 5 minutes in a circle of O31 track.  That's when the tiny screw that holds one of the side rods on the locomotive popped out.  I stopped the train and found the screw, but it is so small, I couldn't get it in the hole - by now I was tired and more than a little cranky.  My wife started asking about Lionel's return policy, which added to my anger not a little bit. 

The screw is actually a tiny bolt with a head about 1/8 inch in diameter I guess?  It is 6-sided and no slots.  So, I need a little bolt driver that will reinstall this thing.

Needless to say, I slept very poorly and I am very tired today.  Gotta get to work, but I'll update later.

[lckiii]

 

I did not get the extra cars.  The wheels did spin quite a bit goign up a grade, but did not notice  many problems with rest of the 0-27 track.  Of course, my track is so old with accumulated grit that it got better traction than it would have otherwise.

 DO not know how much I will run it though.  It is absolutely gorgeous to look at.

 I was irritated that they bent the pins in between the tender loco and included car.  With out unbending the linker pins, a person has to handle it all as one piece.

[Brutus]

Got the arm back on the locomotive using a long tweezers.  Hobby store didn't have any tools like I wanted, so I improvised.  I'm gonna find one anyway, somewhere, because I suspect this will come up again.  I uncoupled the 2 extra cars and put them back in their boxes.

A friend who lives in SC sent me this info in an email:

"I read up on the Best Friend of Charleston in our South Carolina Encyclopedia after your earlier message.  Its formal debut was on Christmas Day 1830.  One observer wrote that passengers "flew on the wings of the wind at a speed of fifteen to twenty miles per hour, annihilating time and space."  The route was from Charleston to Hamburg (present Aiken, South Carolina area, across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia).  In June 1831 a slave fireman closed up a safety valve on the boiler while the locomotive was stopped at a platform.  When the train began to move again, an explosion threw the boiler twenty feet into the air, killing the firieman, scalding the engineer, and injuring several workers.  The engine was rebuilt and rechristened the Phoenix."

I guess Lionel left some of the info off their blurb on the website!  Interesting (If I had the money) to get two and repaint one as the Phoenix!

[Brutus]

See pics on Sunday Photo thread for August 12, 2007.

Got some threadlocker, but don't think it's the one I want.  This is "Medium" and I really think I want "Light" duty for these tiny screws.  Have to keep looking for it I guess.