MTH -UP BIG BOYS
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.
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 Locomotive Cab To Tender Deck Plate
Detailed Tender Undercarriage Real Coal Load Interchangeable
Traction Tire-Equipped Drive Wheels On-Board DCC Receiver Operates
On Code 70, 83, & 100 Rail Curves
HOGTRAINZ DOES NOT CHARGE YOUR CARD TILL IT SHIPS - YOUR
ITEM WILL APPEAR AS "FREE" IN SHOPPING CART - WE WILL
CHARGE YOUR CREDIT CARD OR BILL YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT WHEN READY
TO SHIP!
SCHEDULED DELIVERY DATE IS FEBRUARY 2011
HOGTRAINZ.COM
