A New MTH Monstrosity Arrives!!!

What he said! 😂

Hey guys, until I get organized producing train videos again... here's a pre-production video from MTH produced earlier this year.  The turbine sounds give you the feeling you're at an airport instead of a model railroad!!! 

It is interesting to see the Alco lineage in the locomotive carried over from the PAs design.

Tom

Hi David

We received one at the shop and it was pulled and tested as all locomotives are. We had 3 issues, one of them being lower volume than we like, the second the second unit wouldn't move, and third a traction tire off (it seemed stretched or too big). Fortunately a factory reset solved the second issue although in conventional we did have a little problem getting everyone in sync.  The traction tire was replaced and it is ready for the customer.  You are correct though this thing is a beast and absolutely stunning. This engine deserves a better sound system though for its size.

David, That is quite the engine. Don't have the curvature to accommodate, but I am glad you do and can share this beauty. It will be a real eye catcher on your layout. Congrats on your purchase.

I am glad to see the interest in this model. There are now three recent threads in which it is mentioned. In the one I started on having “twins” I fessed up to owning two 3rail versions, the first being the original PS1 version that I had converted to PS2 by TAS.

In the course of writing about that, I remembered that the conversion resulted in there being two sound systems, one in the lead unit and one in the turbine. They are not in perfect synch, whether deliberately or otherwise, although that only means that they start up separately. I now don’t think that the later PS2 version has a separate sound system in one of the two units and, yes, I remember that I noticed that the sound was a little inadequate for such a large model. It’s the earlier converted model that I run most and it is known as “Ol’ Smoky” in my family for obvious reasons when they see it running.

I also accused MTH of being cheap by just using their existing gas turbine sound files in these models, which means that in both of mine there are actually propane turbine announcements/crewtalk, which is a little jarring. Maybe they have changed that in PS3; I’ll be interested to know what other people find. In any case, after reminding myself of the history of the prototype, I remember that the turbine itself was the same as in UP’s gas-fueled engines but used pulverized coal. It was a failed experiment because the fly ash from this fuel played havoc with the turbine blades.

Anyway I am glad MTH has “recycled” the tooling for UP8080 for what I think is the fourth issue of the model.