MTH Premier Pennsylvania E-8 A-B-A diesel

And Pennsy had NO E8b-units.  This is evident by your last two pictures of real Pennsy E8s.

MTh recieved their e8 molds from Weaver models. What perplexes me with the MTH units is why Mth decided to pronounce the "number board gasket" detail whereas with the Weaver Models, the detail is there but more subtile and looking scale. Other than that, the MTh model with it's electronics is a good buy.

While my only MTH e8 is the demo model, here are some k-line models for comparison:

Notice K-line as well has pronounced the "number board gasket" for some odd reason.

Are the Weaver and MTH shells interchangeable? Are they made from the same mold.

Mark

The Weaver sets were done in the early 1990's  QSI drive system, vertical can motors with no flywheels.   This set has some cab detail added, New can motors with flywheels and an EOB drive system with electro-couplers. Lighting upgrade that include Bi-directional marker lights.  Some cosmetic detail has been added.  Lift rings, wipers, and the brass radio phone antenna.   Detail parts including the radio phone antenna are Bowser/Cal scale.
Note the eyebrows.  Wipers and lift rings added.   The MTH Bennett Levin E8's would have ditch lights.

Note lack of detail on the front truck.

The question about the molds being the same and whether they are inter-changeable has been ask before and not answered.  IMO 1990's quality is pretty good.   Here is a picture of the Weaver E8, A Weaver Baldwin BP20 unit and a new MTH Pennsy Heritage unit

It would be interesting to know if the shells are, in fact, interchangeable. MTH sometimes modified the mounting system on the molds it got from Weaver. I once tried to swap shells between MTH and Weaver VO-1000 switchers. The length of the mounting pillars and some other details had been changed by MTH and while the swap could probably have been done, it would have meant a lot of cutting and fabricating to make it work. I gave up and put everything back the way it was. 

The MTH model you are showing shows the PRR E8s as delivered more or less in 1950, two years before Tuscan Red became standard.  If you look at the prototype photos the stripes were originally painted through the porthole windows.  That practice ended in the early 50's so they didn't last too long that way.

For what it is worth, I put a 3rd Rail E7b shell that was a sample from the first tooling on a K-line chassis and it fit very well with minor modification.  I have a long way to making that project viable though since I have none of the details yet to finish up the rough shell.

PRR did run E7b Units with E8s and E7bs were in service as late as early Penn Central before becoming parts sources for E7as.

The K-line and MTH tooling are different, but I suspect you could swap shells if you wanted too.  I prefer the K-Line over the MTH models myself, but neither really has the right nose contour.  A very hard look to capture.