Re: Can anyone identify this Accucraft engine?

[Kevin Strong]

Is that Vance Bass saying "mess with it only if you must?" You're not 
turning into a collector, are you??? (Must be the heat...) Certainly, 
there is an implied appreciation of history, but if it's not what you 
want, change it. I've got two locomotives that if left untouched would 
have "collector" value, but they weren't what I wanted. Now, they are. 
Will they make me rich when I go to sell them? No. However, since I put 
the time to make them what I want, I have no incentive to sell them. 
They're worth far more to me now than they ever would be as a 
"collector's piece."

The live steam hobby is perhaps at its most creative point ever on this 
side of the pond. No more are people just running what is commercially 
available. Modifications run the gamut from a simple coat of paint all 
the way to tearing everything apart and rebuilding it in a different 
form, if not completely scratchbuilding it. What's more, the price of 
the locomotive is having less and less of an effect on the amount of 
modifications. Granted, no one's tearing apart an Aster Big Boy...yet... 
but we are seeing some of the "cheaper" $3,000 asters being modified and 
kitbashed.

Moral of this missive, don't be afraid to take what you have and make it 
what you want. There's enough experience on this list to get you over 
any hump you may encounter along the way.

Later,

K