My 1st 'recent' MTH Steamer

She’s a beauty!   Thanks for sharing and let us know what you think when you’ve had a chance to run it!

Will do Scott - Just returned from our weekly club meeting where I gave her a test run. Man, does she smoke!  I remember back at my hobby shop in the early 1990s when we received our 1st RK Challenger that it literally did run us outside with the volumes of smoke it produced!  MTH jumped a quantum leap ahead with their new smoke systems.

Very smooth and good sounds - most pleased with my acquisition. Operated her conventionally tonight. Will run her with DCS this Friday at a friend's nice layout.

This scene here depicts an interesting story about how the RR was built connecting Asheville with Old Fort NC after the Civil War to keep the area from dying due to lack of transpiration for commerce to rebuild the South. There was a 900+ foot difference in elevation between the two towns yet they were but 7 miles apart 'as the crow flies'. The job of getting track and trains up the mountains was almost insurmountable...  The story can be found in a book called 'Tunnels, Convicts, & Nitro' by Steve Little. He is from the area and was the mayor of Marion NC for some time. He did a period history story telling at Rail Days in Old Fort some years ago dressed as a late 1800s convict and if was fascinating.

Snazzy. I wonder how many steamers MTH has made (Pacifics and Mikes) using this boiler and tender combination? Good replicas of USRA equipment, too. 

Stopped in at friend Bob's house Friday afternoon to wring her out. She is really nice and smokes better than any other steamer I think I've had. She pulled a good string of Southern mail and Pullman cars effortlessly. Had some trouble with switches and would loose connection often however. Tender is fairly short and the two pickups are rather close is my guess. The pilot truck picked one large switch on the upper level several times at slower speeds.

there than that and Overall I am very pleased with this one.