Union Pacific HO Scale MTH HO 4-8-8-4 Big Boy (Original) Steam Engine w/Proto-Sound 3.0
Overview
Just months before Pearl Harbor, the American Locomotive Company delivered the first Big Boy to the Union Pacific Railroad. The UP's Department of Research and Mechanical Standards had designed the locomotive for a specific task: to pull a 3600-ton train unassisted over the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. While the Big Boy is often cited as the biggest steam locomotive ever built, in fact it is not. The Norfolk & Western's Y6 and A, the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range's Yellowstones, and the Chesapeake and Ohio's Alleghenys were all in the same league, and some exceeded the Big Boy's weight and power.
But in the battle for hearts and minds, the Big Boy won. Perhaps it was the name, simple and direct, scrawled on a locomotive under construction by an Alco shop worker. Maybe it was timing, as the Big Boys hit the road just when America needed symbols to rally around. Maybe the UP's publicity department just did a better job of telling the world what great equipment they had. Whatever the reason, the Big Boy captured the imagination of railfans and the American public over the ensuing years, perhaps more than any other steam engine. In many ways it is the symbolic locomotive of the American West, as big and powerful as the country it sped through.
Writer Henry Comstock beautifully described the Big Boy's place at the apex of steam engine history: "A Union Pacific 'Big Boy' was 604 tons and 19,000 cubic feet of steel and coal and water, poised upon 36 wheels spaced no wider apart than those of an automobile. That it could thunder safely over undulating and curved track at speeds in excess of 70 miles an hour was due in large measure to the efforts of two long-forgotten pioneers. As early as 1836, the basic system that held its wheels in equalized contact with the rails was patented by a Philadelphian named Joseph Harrison; and a French technical writer, Anatole Mallet, first thought to couple two driving units heel to toe below one boiler in 1874."
This enduring symbol of American railroading returns to the rails, complete with the industry-leading speed control, smoke output, and range of accurate sounds that characterize all MTH locomotives. Our model features a precision 12 volt 5-pole skew wound motor and die-cast metal construction for pulling power and speed that rival the original Big Boy - as well as authentic articulated chuffing sounds with the two engines drifting in and out of sync. New for 2011 is the addition of an AC 3-Rail Marklin system version for those who prefer to run their HO locomotives under the Marklin operating system.
Features
- Die-Cast Boiler and Tender Body
- Die-Cast Metal Chassis
- Authentic Paint Scheme & Cab Numbers
- RP-25 Metal Wheels Mounted On Metal Axles
- Operating Lighted Marker Lights
- Constant Voltage Headlight
- Prototypical Rule 17 Lighting
- Detailed Truck Sides
- Detailed Cab Interior
- Powerful Balanced 12-Volt 5-Pole Precision Skewed Flywheel Equipped Motor
- (2) Kadee Compatible Scale Couplers
- Metal Handrails and Decorative Bell
- Decorative Metal Whistle
- Sprung Drive Wheels
- Synchronized Puffing ProtoSmoker System
- Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments
- Locomotive Cab To Tender Deck Plate
- Engineer and Fireman Figures
- Detailed Tender Undercarriage
- Real Coal Load
- Interchangeable Traction Tire-Equipped Drive Wheels
- On-Board DCC Receiver
- Operates On Code 70, 83, & 100 Rail Curves
- (2) Scale Operating Kadee Couplers
Proto-Sound 3.0 equipped locomotives can be controlled in command mode with any DCC compliant command control system. While the user won't have access to all of the incredible features of Proto-Sound 3.0, independent control over the locomotive is possible. This means you can continue to use your existing DCC controller to independently control your other DCC equipped locomotives in addition to your Proto-Sound 3.0 locomotive on the same track at the same time.
When using a DCC controller, the following Proto-Sound 3.0 locomotive features are accessible:
- (F0) Headlight on/off
- (F1) Bell on/off
- (F2) Whistle/Horn on/off
- (F3) Start-up/Shut-down
- (F4) PFA initiate and advance
- (F5) Cab Light on/off
- (F6) Engine Sounds on/off
- (F7) Volume low, med, high, off
- (F8) Smoke on/off
- (F9) Forward Signal Sound
- (F10) Reverse Signal Sound
- (F11) Coupler Slack Sound
- (F12) Grade Crossing
- (F13) One-Shot Doppler on/off
- (F14) Extended Start Up
- (F15) Extended Shut Down
- (F16) Labor Chuff
- (F17) Drift Chuff
- (F18) Smoke Volume low, med, high
- (F19) Single short whistle toot
- (F20) Coupler Close
- (F21) Feature Reset
- (F22) Idle Sequence 1
- (F23) Idle Sequence 2
- (F24) Idle Sequence 3
- (F25) Idle Sequence 4
- (F26) Brakes auto/off
- (F27) Cab Chatter auto/off
- (F28) Clickety-Clack auto/off
- Proto-Sound 3.0 With The Digital Command System Featuring: Quillable Whistle With Freight Yard Proto-Effects Freight Yard Proto-Effects Quillable Whistle w/Freight Yard Proto-Effects
- Unit Measures: 18 11/16" X 1 9/16" X 2 1/4"
- Operates On 18" Radius Curves