I don't know much about Katos...

[loathar]

But these sure look like some real low starting bids for such a nice loco.(or am I wrong?)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130144131209&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=003

I'll have to watch this one to see what it goes for.

[trainfreek92]

I would definetly bid on that one if like it. Right now its a great price. I aggre with Dave Kato is one of the top manufactures (in N scale at least anyways)

[Gandy Dancer]

The Kato drive has been the measure by which all others have compared to since Atlas introduced them in 1984, and Stewart followed suit a couple years later.   My only objection is that some of their paint colors seem to be off.  The green used in the BN executive was too dark, and I have no idea what they were thinking with the baby puke light green they used on the NP business car.

these sure look like some real low starting bids for such a nice loco.(or am I wrong?)

I get higher prices for things when I start the bidding low.  I've never understood why people start auctions with high initial price.  It is the auction mentality.  The low initial bids attract attention and draw people in.  Then those people get competiative and "attached" to that item and will bid higher than they would if they had to compare the original price to standard street price.  Notice it already has two bidders.  Getting the first three is the trick to a good auction.  I'm guessing it will go over $100.

I'll have to watch this one to see what it goes for.

I've never seen a BNSF locomotive look that "weathered".   I've seen a few that have faded to almost a UP yellow, but even the ones on the coal trains don't get that dirty before they get washed.  As a prior poster noted I would have to see a prototype picture before that would be a believable unit to me.

[BRAKIE]

I suspect that weathering job will keep the bids low  and not to mention that locomotive is readily available at several on line hobby shops..

[Greg H.]

The bids for the first 9 days of a 10 day e-bay auction realy don't mean much - watch what happens in the last hour, that's when all the fun begines when every one is trying to sneak a bid in past all the others

[Tilden]

I've seen loco's that dirty.....but they were usually SP's. 

Tilden

[loathar]

Thanks all! I see the bids doubled over night. I know there's still 9 days left. I'll be curious to see what it sells for. (how the weathering affects the final price.)

[BRAKIE]

Thanks all! I see the bids doubled over night. I know there's still 9 days left. I'll be curious to see what it sells for. (how the weathering affects the final price.)

 

I wonder if it will go over the $104.00 discount price?

[secondhandmodeler]

It looks like it has "Smoke" damage!

[bb4884]

It looks like it has "Smoke" damage!

 

 

Yay, i'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this "smoke" damge....

[R. T. POTEET]

I would get that loco, strip the paint off and re-apply.  The weathering looks a bit too heavy for my liking (I wish I had a pic to compare it to....a must for a custom painter).

As per Katos in general....top notch, nothing better.

David B

David B., you and I are in firm agreement on this one; the weathering does look just a little heavy handed.

I hail from Eastern Idaho, Onion Specific country, and my hometown is smack dab on the Butte line. Onion Specific is pretty meticulous about their appearance and I cannot envision them letting their lokes get in the condition of this particular model. Their Armour Yellow is not the most conducive coloration for disguising road grime and, although I have photos of some pretty dirty units, I don't think I ever saw one quite as filthy as this one. In fact - its been pretty close to twenty years ago now - I was doing some train watching while visiting up there and I happened to catch a consist coming south out of Montana. The lead unit on the head end had a very distinct number series of four consecutive digits something like one two three four or two three four five or three four five six - it was a C-C unit and I'm gonna guess it was a dash two; it also was pretty dirty because the weather had, for days, been pretty snowy. Low and behold barely three days later I caught that same locomotive in the helper set being put on a northbound in Idaho Falls, spit and polish washed.

I admit that I'm not that well acquainted with coal dust accumulation but I am acquainted with the Onion Specific and I find the weathering on the subject locomotive to be a little out of the ordinary. The seller may do the same also and that could account for the unusually low price being ask.

[UP2CSX]

The bidder also doesn't mention if the item is new or used so I'd clarify that with him before I bid. Although I'm sure the modeler is impressed with the weathering job, I've never seen a BN engine that relatively new in such poor cosmetic condition. I know I can do a lot better job than that so it's certainly wouldn't be worth more than $70 to me since I'd have to clean it up.

[shawnee]

If it's on E-Bay, I'm sure it's been "run once". 

[MAbruce]

OK folks, I did a little digging and found some pictures of BNSF unit 8802 (Yes, it's an actual unit that is in service).  While I did find a couple shots that show a bit of dirt, there was nothing approaching the weathering job on the model up for auction on eBay:

As seen in 2006:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=581610

 

And interesting shot showing how the paint has faded on this loco as compared to the second unit:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=724273

 

Of course this doesn't really prove that this particular unit may have been that dirtied at some point in time.  I also quickly checked over some shot of sister units and couldn't find anything that dirty.  But as there are many shots of these locos on this site, I don't have the time to go through them all.  Overall, judging by the number of clean looking BNSF locos, if this (or any) loco was that dirty, it likely didn't stay that way for very long.   

[Mailman56701]

I've seen loco's that dirty.....but they were usually SP's. 

Tilden

  Me too.  Literally every CP loco that comes through town, which is several times daily.