GHB Brass PRR L1

[eric220]

Dang, that looks very nice. Kind of hard to justify with two Kato conversions in the stable and so much other Pennsy yumminess on the horizon, but still tempting.

[CodyO]

Its rather nice but just too hard to justify with all the coming products
Plus it seems like I could pick up a few conversion kits off the people who buy the brass

[superturbine]

Dang, that looks very nice. Kind of hard to justify with two Kato conversions in the stable and so much other Pennsy yumminess on the horizon, but still tempting.

With a $2200 T1 is it really that hard to justify

I am just saying!

[peteski]

As we know, the defective batch of L1's was sold off (see https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=37077.0 ). But  I just saw the GHB L1s featured in the New Products Showcase in the July/August N-Scale Magazine.  The water scoop and pilot appear not to be mounted too low. Does that mean that GHB had a new batch of these locos produced (with the problems corrected)?  MSRP is $750.00

SPFs are getting lucky yet again! 

[chicken45]

Spookshow's review of them was quite scathing. I was shocked, actually, and he was talking about the fixed ones. 

[peteski]

Spookshow's review of them was quite scathing. I was shocked, actually, and he was talking about the fixed ones.

Are you sure?  This thread is 2 years old.  The bad batch of L1s was produced and sold in 2015.  The ones presented in the current issue of the N-Scale magazine seem to be a new batch.  The photos seem to show that both the water scoop and pilot are fixed.

[mmagliaro]

Any of the bad ones that customers returned to GHB, if they bought them at full price (not at the "dump discount price" that Factory Direct Trains unloaded them at)  were repaired, and the repairs included fixing the water scoop and the pilot, among other things.

Also, any of the ones GHB still had that weren't sold got the repairs done so that they would be already fixed if a customer bought them.
It is probably just a stash of the remaining ones, with the repairs already in place, being offered for sale.

[reinhardtjh]

Are you sure?  This thread is 2 years old.  The bad batch of L1s was produced and sold in 2015.  The ones presented in the current issue of the N-Scale magazine seem to be a new batch.  The photos seem to show that both the water scoop and pilot are fixed.

Yeah. Quite scathing.  Grade D for the repaired and F for the not.

http://www.spookshow.net/loco/ghbl1.html

That said, they can be fixed if you don't mind doing it.  Several guys on the PRR Facebook group worked theirs over and got decent locomotives out of them.  Not $750 worth, but good at the $260 bargain price.

[Altoona]

I have one of the L1. Bob replace the the engine and tender trucks for me(had already shoehorn a sound decoder in the tender) The water scoop is not to low and does not inter fear with operations. My biggest complaint with it right now is the tender trucks, they don't roll worth a damn. Been hawking the Bachmann parts site to see if there is any tender trucks for the K4 out there yet so I can replace the ones on the L1.

[chicken45]

Yeah. Quite scathing.  Grade D for the repaired and F for the not.

http://www.spookshow.net/loco/ghbl1.html

That said, they can be fixed if you don't mind doing it.  Several guys on the PRR Facebook group worked theirs over and got decent locomotives out of them.  Not $750 worth, but good at the $260 bargain price.

Yeah...Chris, John, Bryan, and I think Scott all bought the firesale rejects and made them workable.
I'm saying, that the ones that weren't rejects, as I understand it, were graded a D by Spookshow. The rejects got the F.
SO, which one did Mark give the D (phrasing) grade to?

I have one of the L1. Bob replace the the engine and tender trucks for me(had already shoehorn a sound decoder in the tender) The water scoop is not to low and does not inter fear with operations. My biggest complaint with it right now is the tender trucks, they don't roll worth a damn. Been hawking the Bachmann parts site to see if there is any tender trucks for the K4 out there yet so I can replace the ones on the L1.

@Altoona  just buy a set of John's:
http://www.shapeways.com/product/4GJ6QHYCW/n-scale-bachmann-prr-k4-replacement-keisel-truck-f?optionId=58939869

[muktown128]

I bought 2 fire sale rejects, but haven't fixed them yet.

Scott

[peteski]

I bought 2 fire sale rejects, but haven't fixed them yet.

Scott

I have one reject and on mine the scoop is way too low, and the pilot scrapes the rails. The overall assembly is pretty rough and some of the valve gear is painted with thick layer of silver paint which is falling off. Wheels are out of gauge, the tender truck pickups are preventing the wheels from spinning, and the wire harness between the tender and loco is broken. But I couldn't resist a challenge (if I ever get to actually working on it). 

[mmagliaro]

I have one reject and on mine the scoop is way too low, and the pilot scrapes the rails. The overall assembly is pretty rough and some of the valve gear is painted with thick layer of silver paint which is falling off. Wheels are out of gauge, the tender truck pickups are preventing the wheels from spinning, and the wire harness between the tender and loco is broken. But I couldn't resist a challenge (if I ever get to actually working on it). 

All of this, and more, is what I've seen in the one I worked on for someone.
Even the discounted price is too much to spend for the amount of work it takes to fix these up. 
I'd still rather have a Kato Mikado with the GHB retrofit kit.

[Altoona]

Chicken45
I would but the shapeways, but still need the axlkes and pickup.
Altoona (Judd)

[mmagliaro]

Chicken45
I would but the shapeways, but still need the axlkes and pickup.
Altoona (Judd)

You can still buy the 33" wheelsets from Kato.  The pickup strips, well, that's still a problem unless you can steal them out of
some Bachmann or Kato trucks and make them fit.