He ain't the only one with that vintage of HO loco..Check out
eBay: Riv, Varney, Mantua, Tyco of same circa (+-) before paying present guy..
You just may be surprised !!
I will never understand you guys who not only mix scales, but country of origin as well, on same layout, IE.. ! This practice will never land you in the '
fine scale modeler's' club..
But, it
is your RR,
your priorities,
your comfort zone,
your decisions,
your hobby !!
~~
Hope you've found or will find a nice loco soon ~~
First let me say, I do not consider myself a modeller, I'm an enthusiastic enthusiast nor am I a purist, I don't run ops, I don't model a particular US RR or area of the US/UK or even Era now, those of that do, more power to you, that's your love, your passion, the fotos and videos I've seen are honestly mind blowing, not only visually, but I can see the love, time, and cash spent on them, so I get it, I really do, but that's not me.
As a Brit, I started in OO scale with steam, (Era 3) as a kid I worked and volunteered at a preservation museum called Steamtown and that had such iconic locomotives as Flying Scotsman, Sir Nigel Gresley and Mallard, I qualified as a fireman in '76 and later as a driver and rode the footplate of all three and a host of others for a number of years as a volunteer, and simply fell in love with them.
So to get hold of any of the models of locomotives I spent many happy years on meant using OO scale, (try finding any of the above mentioned locomotives in HO. and yes, I know they are in N gauge, but that's too small for me.)
I kind of fell into HO by accident, I saw a US steam I liked the look of and bought it, it was impressive, ran far better and quieter than the UK steam that I had, but unfortunately I couldn't find another one I liked till now, I have a half dozen Class 37's and thought I'd try a diesel, so got a cheap GP7 that was a non runner that I fixed, and I loved it, I liked the variation of RR's and so I got more, you can't run UK freight with a US loco, so I bought some HO freight to go with, and it went from there.
Don't misunderstand me, I love my OO scale, and I will never give them up, but the HO, is fun to run too.
I have only once run UK and US rolling stock together, which was actually fun (there's a photo of it here somewhere). The layout was designed originally for my OO scale, but seems to have somewhat morphed into US HO, as I now have several HO structures, as several members know, postage and tax for items from the UK to the US and vice versa is, well, high, to say the least, so the only alternative is the old "pick 'n mix". So yes, my layout is a mix mash of both, and I run both, does it bother me, no, why should it, as you said, it's my RR and I'm the CEO.