I know his property, which was listed for $3.5 million a few years ago (a little out of my price range) sold about a year ago for $1.795 million. Does anybody know who bought it or what they are doing with the railroads?
Just curious.
John Passaro said:
I know his property, which was listed for $3.5 million a few years ago (a little out of my price range) sold about a year ago for $1.795 million. Does anybody know who bought it or what they are doing with the railroads?
Just curious.
At the time I last emailed Tom about the rolling stock he was selling, the property had not yet been sold. By that time, a good deal of his 1.5/1.6 inch scale engines were sold and off the property. The Big Boy and his two 2.5 inch scale NG Mikados were sold and now running in New Zealand, Much of the rolling stock for the Big Boy (a dozen or so Railroad Supply reefers) went to New Zealand with the Big Boy. The Big Boy sold for $260K (pretty much of a steal), the Mikados went for about $175K each and most of the rolling stock (box cars, reefers, flats and tank cars) for about $2000 each.
Thanks, Gary. So the outdoor stuff is gone, sold before the sale of the property last March. I had no idea those big locomotive cost that much, let alone $260K is a steal!
Do we know what happened to the indoor F-Scale railroad?
edit: This just happened to pop up in the random pictures as I was logging out (I think I’d have a tough time physically keeping up with a locomotive like this):
John Passaro said:
Thanks, Gary. So the outdoor stuff is gone, sold before the sale of the property last March. I had no idea those big locomotive cost that much, let alone $260K is a steal!
Do we know what happened to the indoor F-Scale railroad?
edit: This just happened to pop up in the random pictures as I was logging out (I think I’d have a tough time physically keeping up with a locomotive like this):
John,
I realize that $260K is hard to imagine as a “steal”. But that Big Boy was built close to forty years ago by a British model making company, Severn-Lamb. Museum quality builders and professionals at that. When I first started my Gene Allen ten-wheeler in 1980, there were all kinds of “rumors” about this build. Severn-Lamb had a fire at their facility in the early eighties and I was told by a member of LALS that the wood patterns for the casting of the UP centipede tender truck were destroyed in the fire at a loss of $10.000 (just the patterns! 1980 dollars). Loads of money spent in research to build the finest scale model ever. I was involved in some of the machine work for Dr. Lew Soibeman’s #5001 Texas 2-10-4. Lew just finished the engine before his death in 2011. There was at least 10-15 years of research and building in THAT locomotive. I believe Lew measured the only Texas still in existence, on display in New Mexico. This loco is probably worth 100K or more…one of a kind. The Allegheny, built by the late Al Clerici, now running in the midwest somewhere is worth in excess of 150K. My little 1-1/2 scale Allen ten-wheeler is about $20,000 out the door from Allen Models of Nevada. None of these engines is considered inexpensive and when you get into the larger, heavy-duty road engines, they really are in the “if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it” category.
I have no clue what happened to the F scale stuff in the building behind the home. I believe that building was over 4,000 sq. ft. I doubt if if it ever left the property. It would pretty much destroy the layout to move it. Tom also had museum quality ship models and other maritime models on display on the first and second floors of that same building. Some of those models were 10-20 feet long, in beautiful wood and glass display cases. Quite a bit of American Flyer collectible trains in the building, too.
As for the Swanton Pacific locomotives, these engines are in the “stratosphere” class. 19 inch gauge and over 100 years old. Collector pieces on top of the fact they are very large engines. Twin engines (4-6-2 Pacifics) built in 1913 and 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915 here on the West Coast in Long Beach So. California. The Swanton Pacific Railroad is owned by Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) Engineering School. Many Youtube videos of the railroad and the Swanton Ranch.
I happened to bump in to a video on Youtube of Tom’s Big Boy running in New Zealand, after a 1 year re-gauging exercise.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tom+miller%27s+big+boy
https://plus.google.com/photos/109401118301148256327/album/6468879043392456593/6468879711905108530
link to a nice picture of the big boy… (dunno how to embed google plus pix)
Greg
nice, 300k photo! Bet that loads slow for some people…
Greg
355.58 KB to be exact. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Impressive. I would like to see the carrier he uses to carry that thing to and from the layout. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
David Maynard said:
Impressive. I would like to see the carrier he uses to carry that thing to and from the layout. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
I suspect he pushes it with a small dismal.
One video that is absolutely priceless is this one - the Real Estate Broker’s marketing video. Shows it all - layout, F-scale barn, mezzanine with the lionel and boats, etc.
I remember when this came up for sale several years ago. For me, the most spectacular aspect was the G gauge indoor layout Gary mentioned. I seem to recall it being portrayed in a magazine article, can’t quite recall where though.
Real estate site, with some nice pics…
https://www.countryliving.com/real-estate/news/a38526/oregon-home-for-sale-with-railroad-track/
Drone video…
David Maynard said:
Impressive. I would like to see the carrier he uses to carry that thing to and from the layout. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)(https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Here you go David:)…When Tom lived in So. Cal. in the late seventies and early eighties, he lived in Corona Del Mar (just north of Newport Beach). When he had his Big Boy deivered from England in 1981, he used a brand new 1981 International 25-30 foot box truck similar in size to this old photo of a 1998 IH box truck. The box was customized to carry the Big Boy at the lowest point in the box and down the middle. 14-20 Railroad Supply reefers and a caboose were carried on each side of the locomotive and in three or four tiers high. The truck was ONLY used to carry the Big Boy and its entire train!. He also had a special California plate that read “1 Big Boy 1”. When you saw this truck on the road to go to another layout, you KNEW exactly what it was. Cool times back in those days
Just for further information about the railroad property in Sherwood, this property is his SECOND one. The first one, after he moved from So. California to Oregon, was located further south. Pine trees and fishing streams. I remember one old-timer from LALS was invited up to Tom’s to visit the railroad and do some mountain trout fishing. Tom put together a full “fishing train” and attached the Big Boy. Got full steam and took the train out to a large fishing stream. Naturally it had a nice wood trestle. Tom stopped the train on the trestle and they both started fishing. You can imagine the smile on the old timer’s face while he was telling this story :).
Gary, that’s a hellofa good story(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
Another vid of the Tom’s Big Boy’s new home in NZ,
That is a really impressive loco, in size, detail, and overall appearance! As fun as it must be to ride it, I would want to radio-control it and run it through some scale scenery, at least some of the time. 
I’m amazed at how great it sounds, too!
Here is (was?) his F scale indoor layout,