Garden Railway Forum

Spotted a Roundhouse Argyle on ebay, lovely engine

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roundhouse-16 ... 58cf4bd4b6

There's a very poorly-looking "Jack" on there, too. Looks to have been stored at the bottom of a bog, but knowing Roundhouse-built engines, she will steam perfectly well after fitting with a new pressure gauge. Wish I could afford it, but there looks to be some bidders who are all too aware of what it is, therefore will probably not save anyone any money when all is said and done.

Keith S:113793 wrote:There's a very poorly-looking "Jack" on there, too. Looks to have been stored at the bottom of a bog, but knowing Roundhouse-built engines, she will steam perfectly well after fitting with a new pressure gauge. Wish I could afford it, but there looks to be some bidders who are all too aware of what it is, therefore will probably not save anyone any money when all is said and done.

Would you be so kind as to post a link up to it? An hours searching and I'm getting nowhere. Thank you.

I saw a Billy on there in poor condition, but not a Jack.

DVT Dweller:113799 wrote:Would you be so kind as to post a link up to it? An hours searching and I'm getting nowhere. Thank you.

The description and spelling (Rounghouse) don't help... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281823241417

I would say 400 for that was a bit steep. Not even knowing if the wheels turn freely. It looks destroyed. poor little engine.

TonyW:113804 wrote:

DVT Dweller:113799 wrote:Would you be so kind as to post a link up to it? An hours searching and I'm getting nowhere. Thank you.

The description and spelling (Rounghouse) don't help... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281823241417

Thanks Tony.

The poor little beast looks like it's had a hard life, certainly storage wise.

Nothing that can't be fixed, and worth every penny of £400 in my view for a discontinued and sought after loco. Jacks don't come up for sale very often.

Well its now over £500 and best of luck to the person that gets it as I honestly don't think its worth it and its only going to go up. Personally I would much rather buy a decent one for a couple of hundred quid more, that didn't need a complete overhaul and new, well, who knows what to get it running right. Gives me something to smile about though

Makes me happy that I don't need either with the prices creeping up, Jack is fast catching Arglye. The thing with a Roundhouse is anything can be fixed. Will be interesting to watch the final results.

I agree with Tony. Apart from the Basic Series all Roundhouse steam locos are well over £1000 new.
The closest to Jack is probably Katie and thats £1200 new. So £500 seems like a good deal to me.

Alan P:113826 wrote:I agree with Tony. Apart from the Basic Series all Roundhouse steam locos are well over £1000 new.
The closest to Jack is probably Katie and thats £1200 new. So £500 seems like a good deal to me.

Which is great, but it will go for much more than £500, by the time you have repainted it, replaced parts that need replacing, you could well be into £1000 + (assuming you pay someone else to do the work for you) for a second hand loco that second hand is worth less than £1000 and thats without all the work you had to put into it. If you can't do it yourself it would cost a fortune by the time you are done. One of these went not so long back in perfect working order and good condition for £800.

If however your plan is to get a project together and prefer to do the work as a hobby than to a purchase a working model, then it's ideal. It is the sort of thing that I certainly would enjoy doing, even if that meant machining new parts to make it work, but to be fair I don't have that kind of cash right now to throw into a project for fun as I am waiting on my Mannin coming in the next few months or so, aside from that, I don't have the time to throw into that kind of project at the moment as I have a ton of things that need doing first, shame  :oops:

So it all depends on your intentions really, there are many different types of people and this would not suit all.

Argyle made it to £755 which I think is quite a good deal.

Argyle made it to £755 which I think is quite a good deal.

I've had a number of conversations recently with friends who run 16mm or G scale live steam locos about the large amount of locos recently coming up for sale and the lower sale prices and one theory is that the number of new people running the locos has leveled off with the improved build quality of locos made over the past 20 years has meant that there is an ample supply of good used locos with a glut starting to form. A similar thing happened to Lehmann and LGB in the 1990s which forced them to make more and more new designs which rather than boost proffits made them insolvent 10 years ago.
It is also a sad fact that those who retired in the 90s with good pensions that allowed them to buy these locos are now too frail to run them or have passed on.

I see Jack made £723 almost as much as Argyle. That's quite a lot for a blind engine, but they are rather sought after.