Large Scale Reading Company

[DonnaO]

I purchased the Pottsville Passenger car and I am looking for the set. Can someone tell me where to begin? I have tried ebay and other sites I have found when I Google but nothing so far.

[Loco Bill]

Donna,

Bachamnn made the 90088 King Coal Set (Reading) exclusively for Boscov's Department stores in 2000.  It was a limited run and is one of the hardest Bachmann  Large scale sets to find.   All you can do is set up your Ebay search to give you emails when one is listed.  The POttsville Coach you have is also extremely hard to find.   If you live near a Boscov's store you could try an ad in the local paper.

As a Bachman  large scale historian I would appreciate it if you could email me a good side photo of the car for my photo database. 

Thank you and good luck finding one!

[Mark Oles]

Bill,

Correct me if I am wrong, but for some reason I recall seeing the King Coal set being sold on QVC when they used to have a hobby segment.  That would have been the fall of 2000, so the timing is right. 

As I recall, it was a 4-6-0 with a ballon stack, which seemed silly considering it was for a coal hauling road.

DonnaO: The other place to try would be craigslist for central PA.

Mark

[Loco Bill]

Mark,   

The King Coal set 4-6-0 loco did have the older style two window cab and balloon stack, but it also had a coal tender rather than a wood tender.  I have never had any info about it ever being sold on QVC, so if there is some way you could confirm that I would appreciate it if you could send me the info or evidence for the record.  Bachmann claims they never sold any sets on QVC or any other shopping channel, but that doesn't mean that Boscov's didn't put some on QVC, or even some didtributor.   

Craigs list is a good Idea and you can post a want ad as well!!

[Mark Oles]

Bill,

I have no idea how one would check something like that from 10 years ago!  On QVC or maybe the home shopping network, they had some kind of hobby junction.  They were selling bachmann trains exclusively, and it was HO, N and G scale.  That King Coal set was featured, and I was tempted at the time, but the price was high (like $250) and with the balloon stack and coal tender, it didn't seem 'right'.   They were also selling the two add on cars in a separate sale.

Mark

[Wade Colyer]

Hi Mark:

I got mine at Boscov's when they came out. The set had a combine and obs and the Pottsville pass car was extra. There was never a 4-door baggage made for this set.

Wade

[gunrunner]

loco bill
i asked about my thunderbolt express set
"as seen on tv"
maybe you missed it or thought i was kidding

[gunrunner]

that was my second attempt
i'll do more gooder
my box has yellow rectangular oval like old tv format
says
                AS SEEN ON
                       T.V.

printed on factory box, not a sticker

[gunrunner]

i am not a model railroader
i have a toy train
the grand kids love it
i get "stuff' at garage sales
repaint to what i can use
that's why i have a spray rig
come to tnink of it
i did have a green thingy come thru her
few years back

[on30gn15]

link=topic=11192.msg91605#msg91605 date=1259600547... a 4-6-0 with a ballon stack, which seemed silly considering it was for a coal hauling road.

Somewhere, maybe either here http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EarlyRail/ or here http://taplines.net/ there recently was commentary and a link to a photo of a dual fuel loco equipped to burn coal or wood as available which had both an extended smokebox and diamond stack.

If the RR got a better price for wood they may well continue using that as a fuel while making money off the coal.

Let me go look in a book. Will be back.

[Loco Bill]

gunrunner,

I did answer your other post about the Thunderbolts express.

Here is the link; http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,11248.0.html

[on30gn15]

Okay, here we go, page 85 in John H. White, JR's American Locomotives an Engineering History, 1830 - 1880

Some roads operated coal engines on one section of their line and wood burners on another.
The Baltimore and Ohio was a coal-burning road by 1859 (except for a few old engines), yet n later years it acquired and continued to operate many wood-burners as it expanded westwards by means of the consolidation of several midwestern railroads .
There are occasional instances of roads reconverting to wood.

However, some roads, such as the Philadelphia and Columbia, were forced to burn "wood of almost any kind, and most procurable, and in every stage of seasoning." This road's wood was so poor that a mixture of wood and coal was burned to keep up steam

There's also mention of how wood prices fluctuated wildly,  even in 1880 from $1.25 to $6.00 a cord.

It appears that coal usage didn't start to become common until after the Civil War as coal prices came down from $7.00 a ton in the1830s to less than a dollar a ton in the 1860s for RRs near mines.

In 1880 US Railroad locomotives burned 1,338,000 cords of wood.

In the book's section on firebox construction it mentions that fireboxes for coal burners had to be built to withstand higher heat than wood burners.
Coal burning fireboxes also had to be larger than wood burning fireboxes.

So maybe we could say that loco represents an older one the RR just didn't want to spend the money to rebuild with a larger firebox for coal as long as they were getting a good price on wood?

Okay, end of today's firebox 101.

[Wade Colyer]

Hi DonnaO:

Here's one on EBAY:

http://cgi.ebay.com/BACHMANN-BIG-HAULER-READING-LEBANON-G-SCALE-PASS-TRAIN_W0QQitemZ310188195551QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item4838a83edf

Wade