>>10951239As a fellow NYC collector, what I've done, and what you can reasonably get is:
- Kato Heavy Mikado. The P&LE had them and Kato even makes them in NYCS lettering. If you'd prefer an actual NYC lettered Mikado, get an unlettered Kato or a Broadway Limited and do it yourself. I've got pictures of NYC Mikados and not all of them were H-10s. You can get pretty damn close to one of the 18xx numbered Mikados by relettering a Kato or BL.
- Bachmann's USRA Mountains, especially the heavy Mountains, make decent but imperfect stand-ins for the L1 Mohawks specifically, what with their 4-axle tenders. It's not perfect: you'll have to move the bell off of the smokebox and mount it to the boiler, but it's better than shelling out hundreds for a brass model that doesn't run. I've also been brewing up ways to attach a Bachmann Hudson tender to a heavy Mountain to give it the more traditional 6-axle NYC-style tender you see on the L2s and later.
- Bachmann USRA 0-6-0. The NYC's Chicago Junction used them. Just be sure to renumber it.
- Life-Like's 0-8-0 are basically near-perfect replicas of the U-2 and U-3 series 0-8-0s.
-Life-Like again: one of their 2-8-4s could be relettered and turned into a decent B&A stand-in.
- While not perfect, a USRA Pacific is a decent enough stand-in for the NYC's 43xx numbered Pacifics. I've got a picture of one, #4398, coming out of State Line Tunnel in Canaan and my Model Power Pacific is damn near a dead-ringer for it.
Not all of them are perfect. Some are decidedly less than perfect. But you know what? I've learned to make due with what I can. I love my shitty "L1b Mohawk". I love my Kato Mike. I love my Bachmann Consolidation. And as for what I can't make due with? I would kill for an affordable, reliable Niagara in N. The closest I've gotten is figuring I could probably kitbash a Bachmann Santa Fe 4-8-4 together with a Con-Cor 6-axle tender to make the world's shittiest NYC #800. But that would just be stupid, wouldn't it?
