MTH - Premier Steam Locomotives - 2-8-8-2 R-2 - O Scale 3 Rail

On James J. Hill's transcontinental railroad, the massive R-2 was king of the road. Although often lumped with the "robber barons" of the late nineteenth century, Hill built the Great Northern Railway without the government land grants and political shenanigans used by many of his contemporaries. One of his crowning achievements, according to author Burton Folsom, was his conquest of the Rocky Mountains "by finding the legendary Marias Pass. Lewis and Clark had described a low pass through the Rockies back in 1805; but later no one seemed to know whether it really existed or, if it did, where it was. Hill wanted the best gradient so much that he hired a man to spend months searching western Montana for this legendary pass. He did in fact find it, and the ecstatic Hill shortened his route by almost 100 miles."