Hi,

I haven't modelled trains for decades but my interest has been piqued by the
electronics that are becoming available.
I have old trains from the 60's and 70's that have suffered from time and kids.
I've been looking for something interesting and came across these yesterday (HO).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/101940500@N02/9776605831/
Main West 49 class kit that seems complete.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/101940500@N02/9776646762/
Powerline 81 class - just shells with motors and weights.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/101940500@N02/9776630231/
Scaleways PHN Power Van kit.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/101940500@N02/9776827814/

The 49 would make a good model by the looks of it, but the others... can anything be
done with those or are they outdated/unserviceable/junk?

Thanks for your input,
Jay

Some interesting finds there. My opinion (for what its worth) :-

1. Both the 49 Class Kit and PHN kit are very good finds and would be worth a bit on ebay (especially the PHN kit). It will be several years yet before Auscison releases its Aurora sets at which time the PHN kit may become worthless.

2. Unless you are desperate, throw away the Powerline 81s. To be fair, Powerline's 81 class body wasn't too bad. But by the time you've fixed it up with detail bits, painted it and found a proper mechanism (ie Hollywood), cost-wise you may as well wait for Austrains 81s etc to be released later this year (or next year for Powerline's proposed re-run).

Tony

Some interesting finds there. My opinion (for what its worth) :-

1. Both the 49 Class Kit and PHN kit are very good finds and would be worth a bit on ebay (especially the PHN kit). It will be several years yet before Auscison releases its Aurora sets at which time the PHN kit may become worthless.

2. Unless you are desperate, throw away the Powerline 81s. To be fair, Powerline's 81 class body wasn't too bad. But by the time you've fixed it up with detail bits, painted it and found a proper mechanism (ie Hollywood), cost-wise you may as well wait for Austrains 81s etc to be released later this year (or next year for Powerline's proposed re-run).

Tony

Thank You for your very helpful opinion, Tony.

The 81 shells would be good to practice painting on, as I would like to build the 49.
The PHN, I have no interest in.
Maybe someone might be interested in buying an 81 motor.
Cheers.

You could of course throw a Austrains C Class mech under those 81 class bodies and with some paint they would come up as a far better locomotive than the original. I have done several this way and it works a treat. Not hard to do either. You have actually done some of the conversion work on the bodies to get the Austrain mech into it Gluing the cowcatchers to the body. A new C class loco is $195 ea and if you hunt around you should be able to get two to do your locomotive shells with. Orient Express here in Adelaide sell them over the counter for the RRP and they will do mail orders.

You could of course throw a Austrains C Class mech under those 81 class bodies and with some paint they would come up as a far better locomotive than the original. I have done several this way and it works a treat. Not hard to do either. You have actually done some of the conversion work on the bodies to get the Austrain mech into it Gluing the cowcatchers to the body. A new C class loco is $195 ea and if you hunt around you should be able to get two to do your locomotive shells with. Orient Express here in Adelaide sell them over the counter for the RRP and they will do mail orders.

Wait a few more months and for $245 you will be able to get a vastly superior model of the 81 from Austrains

G'day Gang,
I have a Mains West 49 class loco running around my layout now since May 1999 and it hardly ever misses a beat.
It is not the greatest puller of my fleet but runs smooth and quite.
Having not seen  the RTR version, I could not comment on the weight. The M/W unit comes in a a very light 189 grams.
Mine needs a minute or so of running to 'warm up' but after that, runs super slow on DCC and looks OK.
A bit of work needed if you are going to install lights but for it's time of release, this is / was a very nice machine.
Regards and respect.

Wait a few more months and for $245 you will be able to get a vastly superior model of the 81 from Austrains

Austrains and vastly superior all used in the one sentence we will all wait with bated breath. Even their recent models are still a bit on the crude side for the prices they are asking. And yes I have a lot of Austrains models amongst others in my collection.

throw a Austrains C Class mech under those 81 class bodies and with some paint

Wait a few more months and for $245 you will be able to get a vastly superior model of the 81 from Austrains

Thank you, food for thought.
===

Having not seen the RTR version, I could not comment on the weight. The M/W unit comes in a a very light 189 grams.

The 49 is resting on a pack of chewing gum to keep the weight centred, but has been accounted for (scale was tared with the chewing gum pack on). 232g less the weight of the metal sprues (metal pack is 9g), say 4g.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/101940500@N02/9805511725/

Austrains and vastly superior all used in the one sentence we will all wait with bated breath. Even their recent models are still a bit on the crude side for the prices they are asking. And yes I have a lot of Austrains models amongst others in my collection.

For the extra $50 you wouldn't have to make the alterations to fit the C class mech and you will get a factory paint job because if you bother to look at the photos you will see that the paint has been stripped off the old Powerline models. Going the route you suggested would be just plain ridiculous.

G'day JaySmith,
It is always interesting to see how much difference in weight there can be from unit to unit and yours is not painted as yet. That should give it a few more grams of weight.
I like mine and did not go RTR.
I enjoy the painting and electrical side of modelling and every single unit I own has had some modification done.
Have fun.
Regards and respect
Daryl

For the extra $50 you wouldn't have to make the alterations to fit the C class mech and you will get a factory paint job because if you bother to look at the photos you will see that the paint has been stripped off the old Powerline models. Going the route you suggested would be just plain ridiculous.

That is true of course but if there is some sentimental value or the modeller just like's the job of doing it, which I am one. Then it is not really a hassle at all. The newer Austrains ones look alright so far but we have not seen any painted samples yet of them. Also really Austrains as I said need to vastly upgrade their standards to come up to the rest of them they are slowly getting further behind in this dept though. Some models are all right and some leave a bit to be desired. But if they can make a 49 class kit there should be no problems with the Powerline body conversion as they have the bodies although not fine scale ones but they have part of it already. I have converted all mine only recently and I just wish that the C classes had come out a bit earlier than they did.

It is up to the individual though, I only offered a suggestion here if they wanted to go that route, nothing more.

For the extra $50 you wouldn't have to make the alterations to fit the C class mech and you will get a factory paint job because if you bother to look at the photos you will see that the paint has been stripped off the old Powerline models. Going the route you suggested would be just plain ridiculous.

Still some people do still enjoy kit building/bashing...

It's not all RTR.

Wolfpac

Still some people do still enjoy kit building/bashing...

It's not all RTR.

Wolfpac

Well said Wolfpac, that is what I was getting at actually. Not all of us want to simply plonk a model onto a layout.

Well said Wolfpac, that is what I was getting at actually. Not all of us want to simply plonk a model onto a layout.

Thanks and I figured that was what was implied, not everyone "does" RTR, plenty still build/bash/scratch build.

Wolfpac