Railking Imperiial M1 Mountain opinions

Hello Brad, I own a  Pennsy MTH Imperial M1A, and I have no complaints.

Does it have the additional features on the boiler like a MTH Premier no, but for the price it's a great looking engine, pulls well, and the engine sounds are an improvement over my older Railking M1A.

I really like the sound of the grade crossing whistle, sounds pretty close to the real thing.

Currently I am waiting on the MTH Pennsy Imperial L1 Mikado that was just released but has not shown up yet at the hobby shop I ordered it from.

For the price I can't see were you can go wrong with the MTH Imperial Lineup. 

Mark,

  Any issues with the wireless drawbar? I thought I read something about that on here recently, but search didn't come up with a thread.

I had one. I really liked it. Sounded great, looked great, etc. Loved that "mega sized" tender. 

I had to return it to my dealer. One issue, the minor one, some paint defects on the tender. The big issue and the straw that broke the camel's back was the wireless drawbar. Typical vertical shifting such as on track joints, hills, etc, the bottom of the drawbar (where the solder joints are) would get pinched between the trailing truck. If it didn't short out, it would then lift the rear drive axle off the rails. The design/integration of the drawbar on the rear of the engine was the killer. Interestingly, MTH redesigned the drawbar/trailing truck set up on further Imperial engines. Not sure if it was solely due to this engine but just something to be aware of. A friend of mine has one, has put many, many miles on it and has been very, very happy with his purchase. Hopefully I got a lemon. 

Hello Brad, no I have never had any problems with the draw bar connections.

The only thing I had and I apologize I forgot about, this dealing with some jet lag here this evening.

I was running the engine on my layout and when the engine came by where I was standing I heard a unusual noise.

I use the MTH DCS system on my layout.

 I stopped the engine and when I went to lift the engine off the track and laid it in my foam engine cradle I heard a noise that sounded like something loose under the engine shell.

 When I removed the engine shell a wire nut that MTH uses to connect some of the wires fell out into the foam cradle.

Upon examining  the wire nut the wire that it was once attached to was broke off up inside the wire nut.

More than likely it was over tighten during the assembly process.

I stripped back the wires and installed a new wire nut and made sure I did not over tighten it.

Other than that incident the engine been great.

Be truthful with you I just got a chance to look at the latest OGR Issue and I am thinking about ordering another Imperial M1A from one of the Forum Sponsors.

I have both the PS3 M1A and the new PSA3 L1 Mikado, bot in PRR. Both run and look great. I have no issues at all with the wireless rawer. You just need to make sure it's seated correctly and tight.

Good evening Barry, thats great news about the Pennsy L1.

I will have to call the hobby shop tomorrow that I have my L1 on order with and see what the status is.

I just had that simple issue with my M1, but like I said I think I am going to order another one with different engine number before they all disappear.

I also have the Imperial M1.  I agree that the sound quality is very good as well as its smooth running performance.  That said, it should be known that some of the versions that were advertised w/ freight sounds came with passenger sounds.  If you have DCS, you can replace this passenger sound file w/ a freight sound file from one of the other versions if this is important.  The drawbar tether takes some added care in set up and handling.

Lastly, I like the MTH Imperial line very much.  Their added details bring these Railking engines up a notch or two.  I pre-ordered this engine and waited the approx. 18 months for its late arrival.  Upon opening the box and unpacking I was greatly disappointed in the lack of level of detail that typically appears on an Imperial line engine.  There were NO separately applied marker/class lights.  MTH did not modify there original Railking M1 offering:  marker/class lights were cast in and there were no truck chains.  IMO, these two missing elements are very important to the Imperial line.  Aside from real coal load, engine figures, and firebox glow, there is nothing of this engine that justifies the Imperial line classification and slight price premium over the standard Railking steam loco.

I realize companies make calculated decisions with their products, but I think MTH short changed us by advertising this model as Imperial when they produced it missing two key Imperial characteristics.

Good morning Keystone,

I am with you waited almost two years for this engine.

I think this was one of those deals with MTH that they had the cart in front of the horse when they put this engine in their catalog.

Even though it is missing the few items normally found on the MTH Imperial Line, to me it still a great looking engine.

I am glad MTH got away from the Brunswick Green color as with the earlier Railking Pennsy engines.