Reading I-10's

[Sean D. Gaston]

Hello, I hope someone on here will be able to help me out...I was recently in the market for a brass Reading I-10 and lost an Ebay bid for one and found out that the other one I was after, even though it was listed on a website, was no longer for sale and was on lay-away.  This was going to be my first brass purchase.  I talked to a friend of mine who suggested trying to find "a more detailed" old Bachmann I-10 Consolidation 2-8-0.  He said that there were multiple versions of this engine offered by Bachmann and he said their top of the line one had lots of details on it and he said he had mistaken it for a brass engine the numerous times he'd come across it at a show.  I inherited 2 Bachmann 2-8-0 consolidations from my grandfather.  I'm not sure if either of them is one of these "more detailed" engines my friend is referring to?  My grandfather purchased these back in the late 70's/early 80's.  One came in a regular train box.  The engine is labeled as item #0658 Mikado 2-8-2 & Vanderbilt Tender Baltimore & Ohio, BUT the engine is clearly a Reading 2-8-0.  The back wheels are just held on by a small screw.  The paint scheme on it is not correct, but that can be fixed and I am currently bidding on a tender to replace the B&O vanderbilt tender.  The othe engine I inherited is marked as a Reading Consolidation 2-8-0 and is in a gray/silver Bachman Plus box.  The box is much larger, has regular foam insulation, some paperwork, etc. but the engine looks exactly the same as the Mikado 2-8-2 engine in the regular box. The only difference between these two engines are the paint schemes.  The Bachmann Plus is painted with a silver smoke box and red cab roof.  Again, something that is easily correctable. I would assume the better box meant a better engine, more details etc.  but that is not the case.  Now that you have the backstory....
I've looked everywhere I can possibly think of online, mainly Ebay, did image searches on Google, etc. and I can't find "a more detailed" version of a Bachmann Reading I-10 2-8-0 consolidation.  Does one exist?  If so, I'd be interested to learn how many versions of these engines were put out by Bachmann and when?  Was Bachmann the only manufacturer at the time making these engines?  I know that GEM manufactured some brass ones, maybe someday, but for now, I'll keep what I have and try to track down one of these "more detailed" versions, if it actually does exist?  Please help.   

Sean

[ebtnut]

AFAIK, the old Bachmann Reading I-10 was never upgraded.  Some modelers went to the trouble of remotoring the loco, or even putting a new mechanism under the boiler and adding superdetailing parts.  Other than brass, the only other I-10 model I am aware of is the ancient Varney "Super" Consolidation kit.  We're talking 1950's here.  They are scarcer than the brass models.