MTH PS3 Heavy Pacific "The Chippewa"

Very nice Charlie!!!  I wonder how often the Milwaukee Road had to wash those engines!  

MTH should offer a Yooper accent download for the train crew though! 

What can you tell us about the history of this unique engine?

Do the cars have LED lighting?

That engine is sweet! Thanks for sharing it with the video.

Really nice Charlie !!    looks great now, when you get some trees it will look even better ! 

Clem k

Awesome looking engine Charlie. I really like the colors. 

Yeah, your right Clem.  I better get back to work

Charlie,

Great looking engine!!!

Alex

That's a nice looking engine. I have the semi scale K-line version, but a person can't have too many Chippewas or Hiawathas.

TWB,  Here is some history on the train:

The Milwaukee Road introduced the Chippewa on May 28, 1937.  Its original northern terminus was Iron Mountain, Michigan, 291 miles (468 km) north of Chicago in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The trains operated daily, carrying number 21 northbound and 14 southbound. The northern terminus was extended twice: first toChanning in October and then finally in March 1938 to Ontonagon, on the southern shore ofLake Superior.

In the fall of 1948 the Milwaukee Road re-branded the train Chippewa-Hiawatha and upgraded its equipment, including Beaver Tail parlor cars. Dieselization followed in 1950. After that the train was downgraded as the Milwaukee Road's passenger service contracted. Service north of Channing ended on December 29, 1953. Parlor service ended north of Milwaukee in 1956. In April 1957 the train's name reverted to the Chippewa. The Milwaukee Road discontinued the train altogether on February 2, 1960.

The lighting is constant voltage LED on the cars.

Very nice looking engine, tender and cars. I really like the steam engines they are making these days that have some color other than just the standard old black. I think it adds a lot to their looks.

Charlie, I agree with above comments, but looking at the initial few smokestack puffs, You really need to consider a "stand-alone smoke unit(non-puffing) for the Lake boat stack. Awesome!

Dave I agree with you 100%

Looks nice, BUT!  i hate to pick nits, but the MTH model is one of a USRA heavy Pacific.  The Milwaukee's Pacific's were built in their own shops and were much lighter engines.  The tender, with it's six wheel trucks is not correct:  Too long and should have four wheel trucks.  Also the trailing trucks on the Milw's Pacifics were inside frame, deVoe trucks, with spoked wheels.  And whle I like the heavy-weight passenger cars, painted correctly for the Milwaukee, I think that the window frames should have been in maroon as were the prototypes.

But, heck:  It's just great to see our train companies making ANYTHING Milwaukee Road!  I shouldn't complain, I guess.

Paul Fischer

Your right Paul... not perfect but I'll take it anyway.

fisch330 posted:

Looks nice, BUT!  i hate to pick nits

But, heck:  It's just great to see our train companies making ANYTHING Milwaukee Road!  I shouldn't complain, I guess.

Paul Fischer

Right,  you shouldn't.  It's nice that you know so much about the prototype, but so does Charlie - so why rain on his parade?   It is VERY unlikely that a manufacturer would retool to make an exact copy of a obscure prototype.  Those of us who have connections to that region are just happy that we have something that can stand in for the real one.  I'm happy for Charlie and I can't wait to see it in person!

John:  Actually, Joe Hayter, the former owner of Weaver Models was planning on making a streamlined version of the Chippewa's Pacific in brass, no less.  At the time, brass imports were still high in demand.  We weren't able to locate good drawings of that engine at that time.  When we finally located some good drawings, the "bottom" had fallen out of the "0" gauge market and within a year or so, Weaver decided to quit the business.

The Hiawatha colors on the conventional Pacifics was only used for two or three years in about 1938 to 1940, before the RR applied streamlined sheathing to the engine in the design and shape of the more famous F-7 streamlined Hudsons.  Even then, they used a much shorter tender with four wheel trucks.  Those engines survived much longer than the F-7's, staying around in some form until about 1954.

I also own an earlier K-Line Pacific in the "Hi colors", which is closer in size to the Milwaukee prototype.  It, too, came with six wheel truck tender, which I have changed to four wheel version, and I also changed the trailing truck to the inside frame, spoked wheel version, closer to the prototype engine.  I think that the MTH engine would be a good candidate for some special treatment to make it look more prototypical.

Paul Fischer

Paul,  I remember the conversations with Joe well about the streamlined version in brass.  I was one of the people trying to help locate drawings.

Handsome engine, and even if it's not totally prototypical, it does look real good.

Geez the nit pickers never give up do they....Enjoy your engine as is Charlie.