$15,000 Roll Neff Live Steam Big Boy 4-8-8-4 Brass Rare O Scale Union Pacific Railroad Engine Trains
10visit my ebay store - https://www.ebay.com/str/brasstrainsandvideogamesgalore
broke the record for highest priced sale in the model train category. By double! At least in the last 3 months... The bidding on ebay ended at around $15,000. Fifteen Thousand Dollars!
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Model-Railroads-Trains/180250/i.html?_nkw=&LH_Sold=1&_mPrRngCbx=1&_udlo=1000&_udhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=94533&_dmd=1&_ipg=200&LH_Complete=1&_sop=16&LH_PrefLoc=2
might have been the highest in the last year or 2! In the model railroad category on ebay. Who knows maybe even in the last 3-5 years.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-ESTATE-FIND-ADULT-4-8-8-4-BIG-BOY-TRAIN-LIVE-STEAM-ENGINE-TENDER-BRASS-/331907183078?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=WCDS9d3tXzBvB5EgGhl5CDC6%252B3g%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
There was a complete history of the Neff Model Manufacturing Company printed in Live Steam magazine sometime during the 1980s.
Roll Neff was a machinist of exceptional skill. He built his first O gauge locomotive in the late 1930s as a test platform to see what would work and what would not. Over the next 25 years, he custom built many O gauge locomotives - they were propane fired some were remote controlled. Usually this was not necessary - with a heavy train and a good track with well banked curves, additional control was not necessary. The locos would run until the fuel was exhausted - the boiler capacity and tender water supply being sufficient to keep the water level up so as to avoid running dry.
Neff's locomotives ranged from a 4-4-0 with Stephenson gear to at least one 2-10-4 and several UP Big Boys. He was located in New York state and died either in the 1960s or 70s. I had a letter from him in the mid 1960s when I was trying to find an O gauger - at that time he had only one Big Boy in stock which was too big for my purposes.
Little Engines sold about 600 sets of O gauge castings over the years. Occasionally I see one of their locomotives but they are few and far between. Neff built between 50 and 100 locomotives. There were other custom builders during the 20s and 30s however most live steam locomotives were either Bassett-Lowke low pressure models or Bowman oscillators.
built by Roll Neff. The cylinder drain cock arrangement is exactly as he described in this article:
http://ibls.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Cylinder_cocks#Small_Cylinder_Cocks
Roll built over 50 live steam locomotives in O scale."
Then I also found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7dC1WxvlLI
"Neff live steam Pacific. O scale propane fired. Extremely rare.This is a live steam locomotive made by Roll Neff, for UK bidders we are talking about a builder in the Clarry Edwards class.
It is estimated that Roll Neff only made about a total of 50 locomotives in his career. They are superb examples of model engineering and include features such as working drain cocks. He used early Kemtron castings when he could get them for the detail parts. The valve gear is made to work in a prototypical manner and can be reversed from the cab via the expansion link. It is probably the finest example of scale working valve gear I have ever seen. The wheels are sprung. it's for sale"