The NW-2 comes from MTH's 2011 Vol. 1 catalog. and I got mine at Jason's for $254.00
The Engine was packed in the usual MTH fashion with owners manual and extra traction tires. I found when I got it out of the box ,one of the Engineer figures had come loose during transit so four screws and a little quick set glue and it was back in business.
This is a Railking engine so it doesn't have smoke or marker lights it also has the plain Jane two wheel trucks as seen in the pictures. The paint was very nice with nice crisp lines and no flaws.
The engine is powered by dual flywheel equipped can motors,one per truck with two traction tires and double roller pick ups on each truck
I placed it my programming track and powered it up . Now this is what I love about Proto 2/3 engines. On the DCS remote it takes just 4 steps and in less than a minute the engine is programmed in and you can see it's there.
If you come from the DCC world like I do then you know just what a Godsend this is.The prime mover sounds were great and the single horn is similar to that of the early F series diesels .The speaker is a little scratchy and could probably benefit from an upgrade . I have some higher end speakers in my spares drawer so that will be a project for later.
The engine runs great thru all speeds and and despite the distortion in the speaker the sound is really nice. I had a blast with it today cutting cars in and out . The operating electro- couplers on each end worked flawlessly and it handled both my Ross and Gargraves switches with ease.
I hope you guys liked this as this is my first review and my reason for posting this is to show that you can have a blast with a $254 dollar engine.
I think these engines are a fantastic buy for those of us that love command control but can't run right out and buy a 1500 dollar engine.
At 254 bucks that's not much more than most Williams and although it has less detail than the premier or Vision Line engines, Wow is it a lot of fun.
David
