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 Posted - June 20 2025 : 01:03:41 AM
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Found one of these new in the box and unbuilt and had to get it! This really is an interesting piece of model railroading history, and it turned out very nice! And I still can hardly believe that the 70-year-old decal sheet worked!
Darth Santa Fe, doing weird and challenging projects for the fun of it!
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Country:  USA ~
Posts: 259 ~
Member Since: September 13 2011 ~
Last Visit: February 28 2026
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 Posted - June 21 2025 : 8:31:49 PM
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Very nice
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Country: USA ~
Posts: 7758 ~
Member Since: February 12 2014 ~
Last Visit: June 19 2026
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Posted - June 22 2025 : 09:57:02 AM
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That's a beautiful locomotive and very neatly built. I like the Russia iron jacket and brass boiler bands. The decals are not identical to but remind me of the 1870s standard Baldwin tender paint job.
The two engines in the picture are Baldwins of the late 1870s and if you look at the general shape and construction of them, it appears that the Belle of the '80s is a pretty standard off-the-shelf Baldwin.
Though I hate to nitpick such a beautiful job, I would suggest that making the cab roof more of a roofing color than the color of the rest of the cab would make the engine look more typical of its construction and era. For example, the engines in the picture are roofed with a kind of lead-plated soft steel that gives the roof a grayish cast.
Carpe Manana!
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Country: USA ~
Posts: 2417 ~
Member Since: September 17 2013 ~
Last Visit: June 17 2026
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Posted - June 27 2025 : 02:29:04 AM
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Very nice! These old HO engines always have so much character.
Also, I'm glad to hear I've been pronouncing MAN-CHEW-WAH correctly. 
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Country:  Canada ~
Posts: 3448 ~
Member Since: September 22 2006 ~
Last Visit: April 03 2026
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Posted - June 19 2026 : 12:45:55 PM
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Cheese, thanks for the English lecture of proper pronouncing of Machunk, or what ever it was. I would rather speak of HO trains as I have been doing for a lot of years now, as I stumbled through life. A few months ago I turned 80, so if you think I was messed up before I must say that I have reach a new level of incoherent rambling on. I like others who have read the last post on Mantua B&O Pacific's agree they are neat great looking locomotives! I still do have a couple of them, and a few other pacifics that are factory painted by Mantua. I cant open my current picture folder at this time
toptrain
" It's a Heck of a Day " !!!
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Country: USA ~
Posts: 7539 ~
Member Since: August 07 2008 ~
Last Visit: June 19 2026
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