Thanks fellas. It's always nice to have the work appreciated. I hope to finish the other one over vacation. That one is a paid project, and he wants things I didn't do to mine, so his is taking longer!
Nope the Frisco didn't have any 2-6-6-2's but that's a nice model! Who's? Nicely weathered too! Very subtle.
Not many steam fans, no. I guess we're aging out of the hobby. We mostly model what we remember. Still, at open houses and displays they draw a lot of interest, even and especially from kids. My guess is that the reasons similar to what took the prototype down. Cost vs cost of diesels. Low cost steam that runs reliably and lasts is getting hard to find. The new Broadway Limited stuff is in the $600.00-700.00 range which puts it out of reach of too many. Vintage brass can be had at a reasonable price, but usually requires painting and some work to run well and look good, and like Montanan said, the work required to disassemble and reassemble properly can be tedious and challenging. The skills required take time to learn. Another Forum member who hasn't posted in a long time (remember CJcrescent?) taught me mechanisms which took the longest time to learn. Parts for these older models are also getting hard to find. I've seen models being parted out on e-bay, and bring more in total sales than the intact model would have.
I've been doing brass for over 20 years. I guess it's my favorite part of the hobby.