@jhz563 posted:Oh my my!! You have know idea how envious I am. I have been looking for a red mth 256 for years.
They are beautiful, JHZ. I really hope you can eventually snag one. These beasts run as good as they look. Heavy and oversized, they can pull the largest of tinplate consists. Mine is particularly special. When I first ordered her back in 2007, she arrived with Orange cow catchers, not red, like in the mth catalog. I called my train shop and they told me the entire batch was made that way. So, figuring I had nothing to lose, I called MTH to complain. I was eventually directed to a nice guy named Andy, who apologized and explained that the original Lionel red 256 models had an Orange cow catcher, so they decided to replicate that version and ignore the catalog. He told me that they were extremely busy, but if I could wait a few months, he would have his tinplate touch up specialist paint me a new set of red cow catchers to match the red tinplate shell. Sure enough, about three months later, I received the red set with a nice note from Andy Edelman explaining how to take off the old ones and attach the new ones. Amazing service from an outstanding fellow train guy and businessman.
