Great! Now that we're going to have Alice decals we need to get a model of
an Alice that is more available than the Nickle Plate Products model from the
'80s. My sightings of this somewhat mythical model include; a photo of a
roundhouse scene in Model Railroader at a club somewhere in CA and one was
parked with a bunch of other stuff under the coal tower, the original NPP ads
in my MR back issues I've collected, Burlington, IA Spring Meet (one was
parked on the layout), Brass Show at Detroit, MI (dealer wanted $850 I
think), eBay a couple years ago (went for maybe $900), and lastly at the
Wheaton, IL train show (where one went for $750 - at least some good friends
of mine got this one). The model really shouldn't be worth this kind of
money - what does it is the fact it's very unique and only 100 were made. In
talking to Dave Simon who owned NPP he claims he had 300 total made and that
200 of them were for the worldwide market - 100 for the US market.
I've often wondered if a company could come out with a loco shell and tender
shell that then could be fitted onto an already existing drive (I'd be
willing to sacrifice one of my Sunset Hudson drives for an Alice boiler and
tender). Maybe you could use a Boswer drive or a really common brass model
of a Hudson (PFM Milwaukee Baltics are all over the place for $350). I have
seen a "Q" non-streamlined model that is totally handbuilt out of brass that
rides on a Bowser K4 Pennsy drive (built by Roger Miller whose Q layout was
in Model Railroading this past year).
Anyway, this engine is my own personal white whale. Someday I'll get one.
As a side note, Precision Scale does have #4001 announced to be built in O
and HO scale in brass. Visited with them at St. Louis show and it's still in
the future. The only way these models will be done is if they get enough
reservations.
Mike Martin / Peoria Heights, IL
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