MTH E8's have arrived at MrMuffin'sTrains - these look good!

Breezinup, I agree with your statement. It was a surprise to me when I found out that the Southern version had ditchlights on it. I didn't mind because I've seen the Southern E8 6900 engine in Spencer NC with the ditchlights on the engine.....................rogerw.

PRRronbh posted:

Breezinup  are you not a Lionel only guy?!

Mostly Lionel. But I have some MTH. I had MTH stuff going back to their early days in the mid-90s, before most people had ever heard of them. I had one of the very first scale Challengers they ever sold, which was the first scale steamer they ever made, and ordered directly from the company while they still sold direct. I also had several sets of their first F-3s, the first diesels they ever made, I think.

Here's one of my new CN F-7s. MTH got the red color wrong, but that's another story. No ditch lights, though! 

breezinup posted:

ROGERW posted:

Breezinup, You do have a point with the description of the engines in the catalog. It did not say that there would be ditchlights on some of the engines. I can see where that would be misleading. Maybe someone from MTH may see this post and make a new batch of engines without the ditchlights in the next upcoming catalog..............rogerw.

Hi Roger. Yeah, maybe they'll do that. Probably not...don't think it would be worth it for them. Personally, to me it's not a big deal. I suppose it might not be too difficult to remove the ditch lights for those so inclined. This has just been a discussion to clarify that those people who felt they were mislead when the engines showed up with ditch lights have a point, and to note that manufacturers should make an effort to clarify what engine models they will in fact be producing before people start ordering them. 

Also all catalogs have some kind of disclaimer clause.  In this case MTH's is "Not all products depicted in this catalog are production models.  In some cases, the item picture may be models in HO scale, O scale and another scale that have been altered digitally.  Each item's graphic features and content are subject to change after publication.  All product features may be verified on their retail packages."

Translated this means as I have said time and time again Any resemblance of the product to what has been depicted in catalog(s) is purely coincidental!

And yes MTH should have informed us the O-Gauge 3-rail consumers that these were to be delivered this way. 

Ron

Steve-

Does the Wabash light have a Mars in one of those headlights?

Thanks!

Roger

"Mr.Muffin" thank you so much for posting the images.  I was pleased, although, shocked that MTH listened , or at least half listened.

Pick my Southern 6900 up this morning from local Toy Train Shop only 2.6-miles away driveway to parking spot in front of store.  I tested  it on the store layout (that I helped build) for two-hours before purchase.  Intended to purchase at semi-close store 40-miles away but wanted in now(probably would not be there for 4 to 8-weeks.)  Plus he does NOT have a layout where I could have tested it for hours as I did.

This will complement my Lionel Southern hi-nose GP30 #2601 and N&W hi-nose GP30 #522.  Add in 611, NS OCS, NS/NKP ES 44 we have the sights on the NCTM.

Ron

Here is some pictures and a video of my Southern E-8 Diesel Engine.....................Rogerw.

ROGERW posted:

Here is some pictures and a video of my Southern E-8 Diesel Engine.....................Rogerw.

You mean your AAAA !!!! Wow, very nice. 

Engineer Joe, You're right! I have 4 A Units. Engine #'s 6900, 6903,6909, & 6914. Engine 6903 is from 2002. Engines 6914 & 6909 is from 2010 and Engine 6900 is from 2016. I'm pulling 12 MTH-Premier Southern Passenger cars...........................rogerw.

When did MTH restart including a full/complete (Or at least almost complete) "Operator's Manual" with engines?

My last new MTH engine purchases  was back in 2012.  Bought 2-used and 6-new MTH locomotives.  The very last one was the PS-3 Erie Angus.  The enclose "Manual" was nothing more than a 8 1/2 X 11-inch sheet printed on both with four pages.  This was a quit start manual with reference to a downloadable full manual on MTH website.  But of course there was NO downloadable manual for a while.

Good to see the full complete manual again.  But in this case (new E8's) there was NO inclusion about the dummy coupler!

Ron

These look very good!  Mr. Muffin is right!

Hello All, These photos are for clarification on the MTH-Premier Southern E-8 Diesel engine. The engines from left to right are:

MTH-Premier Southern E-8 (2002) Left

MTH-Premier Southern E-8 (2010) Middle

MTH-Premier Southern E-8 (2016) Right

There is also 2 pictures showing Southern E-8 Engine# 6900 with ditch lights....................RogerW.

Southern 6900 in service in 1978.  Not a ditch light in sight:

Before the 6900 was the 6900, in 1951 it was the 2923.  No ditch lights here either:

Rusty

Hello Rusty, Yes you are correct with this picture of the Southern E-8 #6900. This engine is no longer in revenue service. If I'm not mistaken, it's only used for excursion service, thus the need for ditch lights. I have seen this engine in service at the NCTM in Spencer NC pulling excursion passenger cars. This is the version MTH made. If you'll look at the pictures above, you can see that MTH made 2 versions without ditch lights..........so with that said, there is a prototypical version of each engine with and without ditch lights.......rogerw.

I think that there are some who may not know this but...............The Southern Railroad NEVER ran E-8's with ditch lights!!  You can look all over the Internet and you won't find any Southern E-8 engines with ditch lights DURING the time Southern was in operation (before the merger with Norfolk & Western) No one is disputing this fact. All I was trying to do is show that the MTH version of this engine is prototypically correct because of the upgrades to Engine #6900. This engine and others like it with ditch lights  were featured at the Streamliners at Spencer show in June 2014........rogerw.

To those who were not able to attend the Streamliners at Spencer event, here is a link to some photos that were taken during this event. If you look closely at the pictures, you will see the versions of E-8 engines that MTH just released with ditch lights attached to them. Hopefully this can put to rest the issue about the ditch lights on MTH's engines.........lol.............rogerw.

https://www.google.com/search?...WGNj4KHas-CigQ7AkINg

ROGERW posted:

Hello Rusty, Yes you are correct with this picture of the Southern E-8 #6900. This engine is no longer in revenue service. If I'm not mistaken, it's only used for excursion service, thus the need for ditch lights.

I understand that, just illustrating the fact that ditch lights are a recent requirement (Recent being around 1996) and do not go back into the 1950's-80's.

Except in Canada where railroads began using ditch lights during the 1970's...

Rusty

Rusty Traque posted:

Southern 6900 in service in 1978.  Not a ditch light in sight:

Before the 6900 was the 6900, in 1951 it was the 2923.  No ditch lights here either:

Rusty

 

What hit that E8 so hard it destroyed the entire front end, did anyone survive if they were in this engine.

Vintage MTH 20-2396-1 PRR E-8 With Proto-Sound 2.0.  No ditch lights.  Not much else has changed since this model was introduced in December 2002. 

Reading  this thread, I just got an education in ditch lights! I'm not a big rivet counter so it wouldn't bother me , but that's me. I can see the historical significance that people are talking about and getting it correct. That said 90% of the people that see my trains are non train people and don't know an E8 from a GP9, and when I say "SD40-2" I might as well be speaking Japanese! LOL