Edit added later::::Apologies but apparently, the pictures and video I see in this posting are not showing up for others (I can see the ictures and video although the video won't work for me, either). Anyway, I re-posted the photos and video farther down in this thread, I think they work there. I tried, but the site won't let me edit the pictures and video on this original posting - acting weird it is.
--------------Original note and test of my review-----------------------------
First, M. B. Klein is fantastic. I week ago I ordered the Lincoln funeral train from their website. Their whole region got pounded by superstorm Sandy, they had to shut down their website and stor for several days, and the thing still arrived today! They've always given great service, but WWOW!
Anyway, the Klein offering included both the basic train-tender-funeral car and the two-car extension pack. Both were nicely packed in special boxes (no orange) and nothing was damaged, rusted, etc. - everything was as it should be.
Beautiful display. Both sets, basic and extension, came with nice display boards - each is a finished folding wooden display board with no track, but groves cut into the wood for the train wheel flanges to fit in, and just the right length to display the train-tender-funeral car and the added two cars. Here it ison display. Not to demean it, but this is about all it seems designed to do well.
Intricate detail. And display it does!!!! Loco and tender are cast metal, the cars mostly plastic with metal frames and wheels, etc. But there is a lot of color and even what I'd call "intricate" detail on the loco and cars, including engineer and fireman in the loco and full interiors with the coffin and figures in the strange, four-truck funeral car and people and such in the other two (which appear to be identical to one another). Paint and labeling is extraordinarily good on the loco. It has a photo of Lincoln mounted on the front that is about 1/4 inch high on the model and very recognizable - on the sides are smaller photos that are quite well done when examined through a jeweler's loop. It has very delicate bell rope wires and added on detail everything, and very fine pinstriping, etc. The fuel load appears to be real wood. The multi-colored "logo" in the middle of the funeral car's side is detailed. There are many 'separately applied parts" and good rivet detail (I didn't count through though! ;-) ) Altogether, a beautiful looking model.
The loco is tiny. I had heard that a scale early-era loco would be smaller than the Lionel "old-timer" (included with the Lone Ranger and all). Frankly, that was about 40% of my reason for buying - I wanted to see how tiny. Geeeeeezzzz. This is smaller than small. It's minute. Below, I show it head to head with the smallest scale steamer I have, the Lionel 0-4-0 "Shifter" and then with the ATSF 3759, which looms over it like a loco from a different scale.
But its does run. I had read somewhere that the motor is in the tender. No, its in the loco, actually filling the cab below window height. Not too large but enough that, a surprise to me, I can pull the three car set up a 3% slope. Well, it can if it gets running start at least (as in the video) otherwise is just spins its wheels: enough power maybe, but traction is limited - it might be cast metal but its just so tiny . . . Still it runs very slow if given only a bit of voltage if not entirely smoothly at its slowest, but smooths out nicely at speeds that look fast for it (its so tiny it looks to be traveling fast when not really) but are only about 20 mph scale. It goes faster than I am comfortable with it going. And it is not only small, it is delicate, too, or seems that way. Almost fragile, I would think.
The instruction manual is the shortest I have ever seen for a modern loco: a single 8.5 x 11 sheet printed on both sides and folded to the normal size, which means with the cover in front and warranty on back there are just two pages left for instructions. Still, they suffice because there is not much to know. Put it on the track, connect the loco-tender tether, and vary the voltage to make it go different speeds. There is no e-unit, but a convenient R-Off-F switch is under a magnetically latched hatch on the tender. Keep it lubed. That's it guys. No smoke and no sound (and I mean no sound: no whistle, no bell). But the headlight is bright and interesting - made to look like a lantern with the source of light well back behind the big glass shield in its box.
I've posted a short video below. It runs nicely, and looks quite good doing so. Today is probably the only time I will ever run it, though unless I have a guest who really wants to see it run. I repaint a lot of locos and I would like to have a "normal" tiny little early era loco like this, but I'm not about to repaint this and destroy the remarkable detailed photos, labels, funeral decorations, etc. So it will sit on a shelf, I guess- that's what collectibles do, I think? If I can get another, cheap, I'd repaint it and keep it on the layout in a part as if it were an old museum loco, but run it once in a while. Maybe
Was it worth it? I don't regret buying it, but it cost about what a top-grade Legacy steamer costs and if push came to shove I'd much rather have, say, the Leacy 3759 in the photo above than this set. But, it's unique and interesting - so if you throw in the collectible novelty (notice I did not use the word "value" - I don't think that should really apply to collectibles) I suppose its a justifiable price. I like having it here: I really wanted to get the feel of what early locos were like -- for some reason I am very intrigued by the fact that over half again as much time (90 years) elapsed between this little loco and the time period I model on my layout (1955) as has passed between then and now. A lot of time and progress in that period. This loco existing and ran, but wow - were they tiny, crude, but lovingly made back then. And while my wife thinks the concept of a funeral train is bizarre, she loves the loco and tender with all their colors and intricate detail and brass bell and such, and with its real wood fuel load ("They should have used Lincoln Logs" she jokes).
Edit: I really did upload and attach a video here (48 Mbyes of it), but it seems to have left it out even though I've done it twice. I will try once more.
)