Interesting Idea

[NWsteam]

I didn't know if I should post this in General Discussion or Ho but here we go...

Anybody know of a company that does high quality locomotive scratch builds/kitbashing? I feel like with all the "I want one of these" there would be a good market if the company did a good enough job. Thoughts?

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer,
Brad

[Doneldon]

NW-

I'm not aware of any companies which do assembly or kit bashing but there are always people around who will.  Ask at your LHS.  Also, you might check with some of the layout builders which advertise in the model railroading magazines.  Sometimes Model Railroader has ads for people who do assembly, DCC installations and painting.
                                                                                                                                           -- D

[J3a-614]

There are people who do this sort of thing, but they are usually very small shops, typically one-man operations.  Here is one with a website that I know of; there are very likely others:

http://eddystonelocomotives.com/

Here is a guy who primarily does repair work on brass engines:

http://daveayers.com/Modeling/DTAModels.htm

This is actually a very old field in model railroading; past legendary names included Harold Icken and Joe Dorazio, both of whom were known for work in O scale.  These fellows and others would build locomotives that you could not get any other way unless you were good enough and had time enough to scratch build them.

People who do this sort of thing have always been rare, rare, rare--it's truly craftsman work--and a lot of custom work that was done before is now covered by ready-to-run material (you can even get a very nice 2-6-6-6) at prices these fellows could not match.  Of course, there is still some demand for such work but it also brings  craftsman prices.  Expect to pay a minimum of $500 for something like a 4-6-2 or 2-8-2; the gentleman at Eddystone has on his site a beautiful model of a Winans Camel in HO (early heavy drag engine, 0-8-0 type), that required a lot of special parts, apparently including wheels, and he only mentions that the price ran into "four figures" for this rather small model.

The reward for you money, of course, is something Bachman, BLI, Walthers, or anybody else does not make.

[Nigel]

Realistically; for custom work you will pay at least $100- per hour, that is to cover the person living, the cost of thier tools, rent, taxes and other expenses.