My suggestion to all is to go to Ebay, search HOn3 brass, look at completed or sold items.  Pick a target price, say $300, and see what you can get(or could have gotten).  If you stay with mostly Japanese, you will minimize problems.  Older Balboa, WMC, and PFM sell at what I think are at least decent prices, if not always bargains.  Stop bemoaning Blackstone, and figuring what someone maybe could manufacture, and get what there is and run trains.