MTH - Premier Steam Locomotives   (Hi-Rail Wheels) - O Scale 3 Rail

4-4-2

At a time when the Atlantic wheel arrangement was pass on most railroads and the larger Pacific had become the new normal for passenger power, the Standard Railroad of the World entrusted its mainline expresses to a new class of E6s Atlantics. Following the mantra set down by an earlier Pennsy designer that "every pair of drivers adds complications of machinery and friction," Alfred W. Gibbs, the Pennsylvania Railroad's first and only Chief Mechanical Engineer, created a muscular Atlantic that could do the work of a Pacific of its time, cost less to build and operate, and easily topped 100 mph.

4-8-4

A visit to the Norfolk & Western in the early 1950s was like a scene from Jurassic Park: prehistoric beasts romping in their natural mountain habitat. At a time when other roads were letting their remaining steam engines rot away and giving them minimal service in dirty, dingy, soon-to-close facilities, the N&W was still running a first-class steam operation and even building new power. With its main line through some of the nation's richest coalfields, it was still betting on the future of steam; as late as 1955, the N&W didn't roster a single diesel. The majority of traffic was handled by what N&W fans call the "holy trinity of steam": the massive Y6 2-8-8-2; the articulated greyhound Class A; and the N&W's glamour girl, the streamlined Class J.

The Class J 4-8-4 was an engine of quiet superlatives. Handsome, powerful (5100 hp), and, as a test on the Pennsylvania Railroad proved, capable of hauling 15 cars at 110 mph, it was designed and styled not by one of the big three builders (ALCo, Baldwin, and Lima) or a famous designer like Raymond Loewy or Henry Dreyfuss, but by the N&W's home-grown team of designers and craftsmen at the road's Roanoke, Virginia shops. For power and quick acceleration through mountainous territory, and to make room for the largest possible boiler, they equipped the streamlined J with 70" drivers - unusually small for a 4-8-4 and fully 10" smaller than the Southern Pacific'sDaylight GS-4 of the same wheel arrangement.

Built in several groups between 1941 and 1950, a mere fourteen J's were able to handle 80% of the N&W's passenger traffic, because their designers addressed one of steam power's key weaknesses: down time for maintenance and repairs. Equipped with Timken roller bearings on all axles and rods, Timken-designed lightweight pistons and rods, and an automatic lubrication system that reached more than 200 points including the bell bearings, the Js were designed to go a quarter-million miles between scheduled shop visits. Like a race car, they were engineered for quick pit stops: in less than an hour, a J could be fully serviced, lubricated, filled with coal and water and ready for its next dash over the road's 676-mile main line between Norfolk and Cincinnati, hauling the deluxe daylight Powhatan Arrow or the overnightPocahontas.

Now you can enjoy the return of one of our finest steam engine models to the M.T.H. Premier Line. Fully outfitted with the power and performance of Proto-Sound 3.0, the 2016 model, like all Premier steam engines is equipped with synchronized puffing smoke and Proto-Speed control for incredible slow speed action. The Spirit of Roanoke will include special cab chatter dialogue featuring audio from Wick Moorman, former CEO and current Chairman of the Board of Norfolk Southern. Accessible through the Proto-Sound 3.0 PFA feature, these special recordings can be accessed in Conventional Mode from any transformer with a whistle and bell button or via the M.T.H. DCS Digital Command System.

2-10-0

There are two reasons to put a lot of drivers under a locomotive. One, obviously, is to increase pulling power. The other is to spread out the engine's weight, allowing it to operate on lighter-duty track and rail. The "Russian" Decapods were an example of the latter.

4-12-2

For much of the twentieth century, the Union Pacific had a love affair with massive, bigger-than-life locomotives. Some examples, like the Challenger and Big Boy, were great successes, while others like the gas turbines and DD40AX "Centennial" diesel were noble failures. One of the UP's earliest and most successful big engines was the 9000-class 4-12-2, which boasted the longest rigid wheelbase of any American steam locomotive. Designed for fast freight service, the eighty-eight 9000-class engines were built by Alco in 1926-30, during a period when low-speed "drag" freight service - the norm on American railroads for decades - was being largely supplanted by freight trains running at passenger speeds. The 9000s could haul a mile-long train at 50 mph, twice the speed of the Mallet articulateds they replaced.

2-8-2

During World War I, Uncle Sam nationalized the railroads when they proved unequal to the task of moving massive amounts of men and material for the war effort. The agency that ran the trains was the United States Railroad Administration, or USRA, and one of its chief accomplishments was the creation of 12 steam engine designs that lasted for decades. According to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, USRA locomotives were "the first successful standardization of American motive power" - and the only standard designs until the diesel era.

4-6-4

Before it was eclipsed by the Twentieth Century Limited, the Empire State Express was the New York Central's flagship passenger run. In 1893, it was the Empire State Express, led by a hot-rod 4-4-0 with outlandishly large drivers, that became the first man-made vehicle to exceed 100 mph and made the New York Central famous around the world. Beyond the record-setting run, the Empire State Express gained recognition as a pioneer in high-speed rail service on its New York-Buffalo-Cleveland route. Scientific American noted in 1898 that the Empire State Express "opened the present remarkable era of fast, long distance express trains. [It] will always figure conspicuously in the annals of the world's railroads as being the first to maintain a regular schedule speed of over 52 miles an hour for an unprecedented distance and for runs of unprecedented length between stops."

4-6-6-4

In the early part of the twentieth century, most freight moved in relatively slow "drag" freight trains, and speed was secondary to just getting the goods delivered. The introduction of "super-power" steam technology in the 1920's, however, enabled builders to create freight locomotives that combined speed and power. Perhaps the zenith of the fast freight engine was the 4-6-6-4 Challenger, first conceived by the Union Pacific Railroad and American Locomotive Works in the mid-1930s. The Northern Pacific liked what it saw taking shape at Alco and ordered its own, even bigger Challengers. One reason the NP engines were larger was the railroad's use of large fireboxes to burn low-quality Rosebud coal mined online in Montana - coal that at least one fireman described as "damned close to dirt." The first dozen Z-6 Challengers arrived in 1936, just months after the UP received its own first Challengers. Like 4-6-6-4s on the UP and the Western Maryland, the articulated Z-6s replaced older, slower rigid-frame engines - doubleheaded Mikados in the Northern Pacific's case. The Z-6s spent most of their careers hauling reefer trains and fast freights on Northern Pacific divisions in Washington State and Montana's Big Sky country, with occasional passenger stints leading the crack North Coast Limited. Sixty-nine inch drivers allowed a Z-6 to maintain 60 mph on the plateaus between the Northwest's mountain ranges.