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New Haven O Scale Premier I-5 4-6-4 Steam Engine w/Proto-Sound 2.0 (Hi-Rail Wheels)
20-3196-1
List Price:
$1099.95
Roadname:
New Haven
Scale:
O Scale
Product Type:
Steam Locomotive
Product Line:
Premier
Delivery Status:
Cancelled
Overview
Six decades before Amtrak's Acela, the New Haven's streamlined I-5 Hudsons ruled what would later be called the Northeast Corridor. Operating under bankruptcy in the depths of the Depression, the New Haven in 1936 solicited bids for a new steam passenger engine to replace its fleet of overworked and tired I-4 Pacifics. Almost all previous steamers and nearly all first-generation diesels on the New Haven were Alco products. But Baldwin got the nod for the I-5 order because it was the sole firm that would meet the railroad's price of $110,000 per engine. The only streamlined steam power in New England and the last steamers built for the New Haven, the ten gleaming black and stainless steel I-5's arrived on the property in 1937. Their Assignment: 12 eastbound and 12 westbound trains daily on the 156.8-mile Shore Line from Boston's South Station to New Haven, where electric power took over for the final sprint to New York City. The new I-5s easily met the New Haven's need for a locomotive that could accelerate quickly to 70 mph between the Shore Line's many stops, while pulling a train of 14 or more cars. Within less than five years, however, the arrival of Alco DL-109 diesels challenged the I-5s supremacy on the Colonial and other crack passenger trains. Because it beat the new diesels in medium and high-speed acceleration, the I-5 remained the preferred power on the New Haven's top passenger run, the extra-fare Merchant's Limited. But by 1950 a new fleet of Alco PA passenger diesels had doomed the handsome I-5s to the scrap line. New for 2005, MTH announces the most accurate and feature-laden I-5 ever built in O scale. Researched extensively from New Haven blueprints and photos, our model will feature aluminum paint striping on the locomotive and tender, as well as the steamboat-style whistle that distinguished this New Haven speedster. Two versions will be offered; engine 1401 as built with block tender lettering and full driver striping, and engine 1406 as she appeared in the 1940's with a large script tender herald.