Large Scale Central

Buddy L

General Discussion
#1

My lovely bride found an add in a “sportsman’s” catalog for a “Rare” Buddy L train set. Only 1000 of these “G-Scale” sets were produced, the catalog states breathlessly. They are listed in the catalog for $189.00 with an MSRP of $619.00

Supposedly the locomotive is a die-cast 2-6-2. The set includes a tender, phlatt cat, gondola, boxcar and crummy. there is an oval of track, with a power supply and the whole shebang weighs 16 pounds, 3 oz!

Is this a fair price, or should I stay away?

#2

Stay away and invest in the Bat/RC movement.

#3

That’s kinda what I thought.

Thanks, JB

#4

You can get a Bachmann Annie for a whole lot less…and get a far better locomotive. (IMO) The track and power supply are a waste of time and cars for the Annie are a dime a dozen.

#5

Steve,
while these really are very poorly made toys, with a few mods they will become as reliable as a Bachmann loco. Once the bugs are worked out they perform brilliantly. I have purchased nine total of these locomotives (mostly the Heritage Express version). If you really want a prairie then this is the only alternative, excepting a lot of sxcratchbuilding.

      They were marketted under the J.Lyoyd International brandname and licenced as Buddy L in later life (post Heritage Express),  using what appear to be pirated or older re-engineered Bachmann tooling for the tender.  The drive chassis is a poor copy of a LGB mogul (very poor).  Their soul purpose seemed to be for use around the Christmas tree,  although in standard form I doubt more than one season.  There is a considerable amount of sideplay engineered into the flanged driving wheels and this fact causes the loco to derail on most switchwork.  By limiting the sideplay on the flanged axles and the pilot and pony wheelsets,  the loco will track beautifully through all track configurations.


    
      I have pretty well sussed them out and ironed out the mechanical bugs,  but apart from poor soldering on connections,  the sound unit is more difficult to troubleshoot and once it fails it is better to forget about it (although the drive is quite noisy and the sound did tend to disguise it).  After the mechanical bugs are sorted,  then issues like crumbling plastic start to surface.  Many parts are interchangeable with the Bachmann product line.  Bottom line is that no matter how much you try,  you will still have a purse made from a sow's ear (and it will definately not be silk).  Barring all this I still enjoy my locomotives.  I had my latest creation running today for some time.  It is a shortened Bachmann Annie body on a shortened Heritage chassis.  The tender was shortened as well,  with the Bachmann 'steel' cab modified to resemble a switching cab.  I fitted an Aristocraft bell/whistle sound unit and quite enjoy using the loco.  It has a standard Bachmann Annie cast weight bonded inside the boiler and is quite a performer.


      There is actually a standard gauge prototype at Steamtown that looks very much like an Anniversary body on a standard length Buddy L chassis, with an onion stack and two pictures show it with both the Bachmann 'steel' cab and the Buddy L type 'steel' cab'.   The Anniversary body takes around ten minutes to modify to fit to a Buddy L/Heritage chassis.  The Annie steam chest and cylinders are a relatively easy fit as well.  The drive rod needs to be shortened to fit.  I used the standard plastic Heritage side rods.  The prairie configuration seemed very popular in the logging industry,  with its leading and trailing trucks.
#6

I got my Buddy L set for about a hundred bucks, marked down from $499. I didn’t know anything about Large Scale at the time, other than the fact that it was generally an expensive hobby. But this looked good, the sound was awesome, and the price was right so I got it, and it inspired me to build my layout.

I modified my loco, correcting the gauge of the wheels, adding weight, a new battery-powered LED headlight, backhead details, and other changes that vastly improved the overall appearance. It runs well enough so far, can pull a decent string of cars up a ~4% grade, and hasn’t derailed yet. Sadly, the sound system I loved so much died for no apparent reason.

But as others have said, you can get a much-better Annie for less. If I’d known then what I know now, that’s what I would have done.

#7

I sold mine

#8

Victor Smith said:
I sold mine

-Yes, to some poor youngster!

-Brian

#9

brian donovan said:

Victor Smith said:
I sold mine

-Yes, to some poor youngster!

-Brian

Hey! He loved it! …Matt knew what was buying when he got it. The main reason I got rid of mine was becuase it didnt fit in my plans anymore, so I let him have it. I would say that if you can get one for $50 -$80 their fun to mess around with. But they are at best 3rd gen Bug Hauler level, if you have to spend over $100 go with the Bug Hauler. One definite advantage to the Buddy L, its a nice model of a Priarie 2-6-2, which to date no one else makes and it does look really nice rolling down the tracks. so…

#10

Here’s a video of my Heritage Express prior to bashing it. I also loved the sound. I never got the smoke to work even though it is suppose to blow smoke based on the plunger in the cylinders. http://timothydehan.com/redmondcreekrr/videos/HeritageExpress2-6-2.wmv Here it is after the kitbash (I have since replaced the ballon stack with a short straight stack which looks really nice. I will post a picture of it soon: Before:

After:

More pictures: http://timothydehan.com/redmondcreekrr/heritage.htm