MTH BIG BOY TO HAVE STEAMING WHISTLE IN 2015

I guess the Lionel Vision Line Big Boy pushed them over the edge.  Hopefully, they'll apply that treatment to more steamers in the future.

 

I'll believe it when I see it.

MTH was the first to show this feature.  Andy had a VISION.  Lionel put it in the VL Hudson.

 

I was really surprised that it has taken them this long but am happy to finally see it cataloged!

Marty is correct - the MTH Gauge ONE Triplex has whistle steam and came out several years ago...

That's a good feature.  It also has a price that is getting up there, although still only about half of what you can get the other scale BB for.  

 

but I'm sticking with my JLC BB for now.  Looks good and I don't run it enough to justify spending on newer sound, steam whistle, etc. 

Not to mention that the front end of the catalogued MTH 4014 LOOKS like the real 4000 class locomotives as they appear in parks & museums today.

They list the 611 coming with a new sound set. Hopefully MTH has realized that their sound needs to improve across the board in the steam department if they want to compete with Lionel. It can blow steam out of anywhere they would like it to...... and lets not forget that drawbar. Until those 2 things improve drastically, count me out on any of the MTH steam.

I'm curious about your drawbar comment. I have many MTH steam models with the current style, so called "wireless drawbar", and have never had any problems. Plus I can early shorten the drawbar length for close coupling of the tender to the cab, which is almost impossible on Lionel steam models.

About time.. Now make some steamers.

I wonder what the street price is gonna be on the bigboy.. 1300?

Great to see MTH coming back into US steam production in a big way again, after whatever factory debacle over in China caused them to go off line in the steam department for a couple of years.

 

But I am a bit puzzled here.  Namely... aside from die-hard MTH aficionados wanting one, I'm not sure why MTH would produce a Big Boy in the shadow of Lionel's big preview splash of their Vision Line model for almost a year now.  Just comes off as a bit of a "me too" move by MTH with a Big Boy that still comes up short vs. the Lionel model.

 

On a somewhat related note... MTH could have made a MUCH bigger splash with their entrée' into whistle-steam by introducing the feature on an engine that Lionel didn't... like the N&W "J".  That would have made the MTH "J" an instant buy for me.  But as it stands, their newest J is just another page in the catalog that I glossed over.  So they completely missed the boat on that one -- especially since Lionel still has a bunch of 611 J's without whistle-steam sitting in a warehouse until their Chinese supplier can figure out how to make aluminum passenger cars again.    That Pocahontas set is way, way overdue.  So now an already over-saturated toy train market will have two importers delivering a J without whistle-steam.  

 

Back to the MTH Big Boy though...  By going with a $1,600 MSRP in the catalog, MTH further proves my observation that Lionel's model (even with an extra feature or two) is way overpriced -- both at the ridiculous $2,700 MSRP point, as well as the $2,000 street-price point we saw from many dealers trying to capture buyers during the pre-order frenzy.

 

David

It does seem a bit odd, but then MTH is offering, according to the photos in the catalog, a "more correct" appearing model, i.e. the front end looks like all the 4000s saved in parks & museums. Plus, I also noticed that there will be an oil fired version of the tender for #4014.

I thought I may have been the only one to notice that also! 

MTH` BIG BOY will also be available with PROTO SCALE 3-2 with Scale Wheeled versions, making it the first 2-Rail Steamer to come with the Steaming Whistle effect..

Looks like MTH hit a homerun with that BB.   #4014..Oil fired, closed cab, correct pilot, whistle steam and upgradable sound...

If that water tender would have only been of the newer rebuilt style, me thinks it would have been a grand slam. If I wanted another BB, this would be the one for me.

Given its street price, I'm wondering how many of those overpriced "as built" VL Bigboys with that silly coal load will go homeless?

Joe  

  

I'm curious about your comment regarding the coal tender on the BigBoy; didn't they ever run this loco with a coal tender at any time?  Or did it depend on the road number with eariler version featuring a coal tender.  Steam engines should run on coal not oil!

 

I have the new lionel version on order that will trump the MTH BB any day of the week regarding features and possibly detail.  it will be worth the extra $$$ IMHO.

 

Peace!

This is a + and good news for the 2 railers.

 

The 2rail BigBoy makes up for the FEF not being 2rail. It's good to hear also that it's more correct. I haven't really studied the photos yet.

The BigBoys were all coal fired. The oil tender you see is what it will be fired with when they resore 4014. Plus it's still cheaper then the Lionel and I can get it in 2rail.

Ralph

The UP did experiment with oil firing on a Big Boy.

 

Rusty

Correct. Locomotive #4005 (currently in the museum in Denver, CO) was converted to burn Bunker C, as a "test" in the event that a big coal miners strike happened. The 4005 was later (after about a year?) converted back to a coal burner. The "test" was eventually successful, after much tweaking in the firebox, but used WAY TOO MUCH fuel ascending the westbound grade on Sherman Hill. Coal burning locomotives could take coal on "The Hill", but there was no facility to maintain & heat the Bunker C, thus no oil burners could refuel while on the grade.

I'm glad to see American steam in the latest catalog but more J1 Hudsons?  Same old, same old.  How about a J3 Hudson like 3rdrail did a while back?

Bummer, I was really hoping Lionel could do the sueing this time