02-15-2009, 12:34 PM
Heh, I'm just playing with ya, funny story how I came to wind up with the 38 Century. Back around 1980, I told my wife I would like a brass J3a that had just come out. I was not thinking of the streamlined version, but guess I never mentioned that. I got the streamlined loco for Xmas. Many years later, maybe ten years ago, I went to the NYC Historical society's show in Cleveland. The brass loco had sat unpainted all this time. At a table there someone had the 7 car set of the 38 Century by Eastern Car Works, all built up. So I bought them. When i got home I found they had not been assembled terribly well. They did have full width diaphrams on them, which were very stiff and had to be removed to get them around my 30" radius curves. But I still had derailment problems and I found the trucks were not assembled square. A bit of tweaking improved all but the observation car, which even had its body glued on at an angle so it was higher at one end than the other! The trucks don't roll well either, but the brass loco is a strong puller and it hauls the 6 cars up a 2% grade ok. But when i pull the string by hand it is obvious the drag is much greater than say Walthers cars.
Anyway, I had a painter match the colors of the cars to paint the loco, (turned out to be difficult, the greys are not just black/white) and I bought a Rivarossi tender to replace the centipede tender that came with the loco. We just painted the tender and put the stripes to match the cars, I never realized they were in the wrong place! I was on a NYC forum some years ago and found someone with the 7 car set unbuilt and so I bought it. Have not done anything with it, but would like to find the correct trucks and then build the cars, I'll have more sleepers this way, and an obervation to replace the bad one. I'll repaint the coaches for my freelance road.
Here are a few pics, the original brass tender waiting for a use (may upgrade a J1 someday) the boxes for the unbuilt set of cars, and the side of the observation, as you see prepainted, so most folk will never realize the window problem, till they couple up to a loco such as yours. Bummer. You could just reapint the tender.
I just noticed that my boxes are marked E&B Valley, not Eastern Car Works, I don't know if one company bought the other, but I believe the kits are the same.
Anyway, I had a painter match the colors of the cars to paint the loco, (turned out to be difficult, the greys are not just black/white) and I bought a Rivarossi tender to replace the centipede tender that came with the loco. We just painted the tender and put the stripes to match the cars, I never realized they were in the wrong place! I was on a NYC forum some years ago and found someone with the 7 car set unbuilt and so I bought it. Have not done anything with it, but would like to find the correct trucks and then build the cars, I'll have more sleepers this way, and an obervation to replace the bad one. I'll repaint the coaches for my freelance road.
Here are a few pics, the original brass tender waiting for a use (may upgrade a J1 someday) the boxes for the unbuilt set of cars, and the side of the observation, as you see prepainted, so most folk will never realize the window problem, till they couple up to a loco such as yours. Bummer. You could just reapint the tender.
I just noticed that my boxes are marked E&B Valley, not Eastern Car Works, I don't know if one company bought the other, but I believe the kits are the same.