Garden Railway Forum

Hello,

I'll be in the market for my first live steam locomotive over the next few months and I wondered if you could recommend places, websites, groups etc. to keep an eye on for good value second hand live steam?

The cheapest 2nd hand locos can often be found in 16mm Bulletin, which comes with the 16mm Today, the magazine of the Association of 16mm Modellers, I've seen a few bargains in there, but I would imagine that you have to be quick! Otherwise, checking in Garden Rail magazine can yield results, and some of the other smaller traders. But Anything Narrow Gauge is the major supplier.

A quick tour round the second hand section of Anything Narrow Gauge will give you a feeling for the prices through a commercial channel. You might want to check out the Member-to-Member-Sales at the 16mm Association AGM in Peterboro.

I bought my first on gscalecentral sales, and another member kindly gave it the once over. I may have been lucky but I have also bought two lovely roundhouse locos on ebay but of course you have no comeback. Make sure your first is something you really want as I believe Tag's comment in his book that you always keep your first loco......My 15 year old lady Anne is staying...

You may be surprised how many engines come up on the traditional Model Engineering suppliers sites. Have a look at Maxitrak and StationRoadSteam and Steam Enigines for Sale. Most can be found via my site http://www.5inchrail.com/2ndhand.html

Barry