MTH Restoration Big Boy Review - JDstucks

Just watched the video, Jason. Man, that is an amazing beast of an engine. "Would you look at the size of that thing."-Wedge Antilles; Star Wars: A New Hope. Are you ever going to try and find the matching passenger cars?

Excellent and enjoyable as always @jdstucks! The bridge shots are incredible my friend.

Thanks for not unboxing it!  LOL!  Nice to get into the meat and potatoes. Nice review and look.  The layout is looking good too!

Thanks everyone! And yes, I'd like to get more matching passenger cars some day. But for now, UP coal cars work just fine

- Jason

Your video convinced me to order the new one. MTH should offer you a job! I swore I'd never get a big boy haha.

Tony

The Rambles

Interesting co-incidence I experienced with this. Years ago, I decided to move up to a scale Big Boy after my experience with a RK version. Finally found one at a York meet (waves at TrainPop). This was before UP announced which '4000' they were going to re-acquire for restoration. Just by coincidence, the model I picked up was the PS2 version of...4014

Naturally, this is the coal version but I was tickled at the thought I had gotten ahead of the game. So, I hesitated to order the initial MTH 'restoration' BB, and may have kicked myself for not doing so when I saw the finished product. Soooooo, when the announcement was made of the 'Mike Wolf' edition of the restoration BB, I pulled the trigger on one. I had an auxillary tender for my existing PS2 4014, but it turns out that it's only compatible with PS3 units. So now it has a locomotive to tag along with.

In anticipation of the MW edition BB's arrival, in July 2020 I ordered a UP SD70M #4884, and a month later, the UP SD70M #4014. So now when I finally get around to making a video of all three MU'ed together, I can joke about people claiming that even the model 4014 has its diesels doing all the work

---PCJ

Nice video but where was the stack smoke? I noticed on the close up of the whistle that smoke was coming from the stacks as the whistle lever was being slid up and down. Did MTH use 1 smoke unit for both stack and whistle steam? I know Jason did show where to fill the whistle steam, but I am wondering why I see smoke from the stack when the whistle is being toggled. So you guys that have these already how about some input on this. I have one of these on preorder. I guess in the end what I am wondering......... As the Big Boy is barreling down the mainline with the stack smoke blowing out  tons of smoke (as MTH locos do), if I toggle the whistle steam, do I lose output on the amount of stack smoke? Jasons video didnt show a lot of stack smoke. Perhaps He had the stack turned off to show that awesome whistle. Thanks for any input.

Is this the same one that MTH released sometime last year as the "Limited Edition?" I ordered one in July...still waiting for it to arrive.

@jini5 posted:

Nice video but where was the stack smoke? I noticed on the close up of the whistle that smoke was coming from the stacks as the whistle lever was being slid up and down. Did MTH use 1 smoke unit for both stack and whistle steam? I know Jason did show where to fill the whistle steam, but I am wondering why I see smoke from the stack when the whistle is being toggled. So you guys that have these already how about some input on this. I have one of these on preorder. I guess in the end what I am wondering......... As the Big Boy is barreling down the mainline with the stack smoke blowing out  tons of smoke (as MTH locos do), if I toggle the whistle steam, do I lose output on the amount of stack smoke? Jasons video didnt show a lot of stack smoke. Perhaps He had the stack turned off to show that awesome whistle. Thanks for any input.

Stack output was probably just turned down to showcase the whistle steam. The whistle and stack smoke units are separate, and activating the whistle steam doesn't cut off the stack smoke unit.

Nice review. If I remember a couple of your other videos there was some issue with the locomotive that caused it to have to go in for repairs a couple times. I assumed that the issue was figured out?

I wanted to pick one of these up but I was worried that it wouldn't clear a support on my layout (which I can't move without reconfiguring the entire thing). I borrowed a friend's Premier Big Boy to check clearances. My other articulated locomotives (Premier DM&IR Yellowstone, Premier SP AC6 Cab Forward, Lionel AC9 Yellowstone) all clear that support by 1/8"-1/4". The Big Boy smacked right into it with the front of the boiler. So I bought a UP Challenger instead, and that clears fine.

To answer a few questions:

- The smoke stack is separate from the whistle steam. I didn't put in a bunch of smoke in the stack in an effort to highlight the whistle steam.

- This is NOT the Mike Wolf Big Boy which I also specified in the video.

- This is the 2020 release from the MTH's volume 2 catalog.

- Jason

@jini5 posted:

Nice video but where was the stack smoke? I noticed on the close up of the whistle that smoke was coming from the stacks as the whistle lever was being slid up and down.

It looked like the stack smoke was just wafting out. Like the loco isn't doing much work, just like the real 4014 👍lol!

In a seriousness. It could be a smoke fluid bubble blocking the flow out of the stack

Magnificent engine.....great video!

Thanks, Jason

Great video Jason! Glad you have it working great now after all the problems you had with it