MTH ELECTRIC TRAINS

In the midst of the Great Depression, Union Pacific designed and asked ALCO to build the best high-speed simple articulated engines to grace American rails. The 4-6-6-4 Challenger first appeared on UP rails in 1936, and it was clear from the beginning that it could handle tremendous tonnage at high speeds. Although the Challenger was designed for fast freight work, the UP also used it for passenger service; the engine proved it could easily handle any task it was given. It was in a round-about way that Clinchfield took possession of their Challengers. Early in World War II, UP entered an order for several more Challengers. The War Production Board refused to let UP have the entire order and diverted six of the new Challengers on a lease program to the Rio Grande, which used the locomotives until the war's end. In 1947, eastern coal hauler the Clinchfield Railroad bought all six Challengers. They moved the Challengers east under their own power and put them to work pulling long coal trains. By 1953, though, steam locomotives were phased out and Clinchfield's Challengers were retired. M.T.H. is proud to reintroduce the Challenger in the markings of five railroads in the 2004 RailKing One-Gauge line. This model of a classic American prototype will look right at home in virtually any garden setting, due to the prototype's use across the span of the United States. Pull-out fact: The UP apparently expected to get the remaining six Challengers they had ordered after the war, but the U.S. government, who owned them, stored them in Salt Lake City until striking the deal that sold them to Clinchfield.