Edit at 5:01 PM EST 11/21/12 - with approximately 20 minutes of run time on it, MTH 999 died completely this afternoon. I'll post another thread about it. One very, very dead toy train.
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This posting is partly to practice using the new camera I bought and make sure I can post videos of it, so if the video does not work, back to square one for me. This is at the lowest resolution setting - a file size the stays nicely under the 100 Mb limit. Hopefully I can move up to the next better resolution next time - but this for now.
I promised on another thread to post a video of my new MTH 999 whenf I could. I decided to have fun - that being the whole point of toy trains - and "race" 999 against my Lionel Shifter, but to see which can run slowest, smoothly, in conventional, with sound on. The Lionel is at 8.9 volts - it will run slower but its sound cuts out. The MTH is at about 13 volts and it will not go much slower, period, and its sound is near its low voltage limit, too. The MTH wins - just slightly slower than the Shifter. The Shifter can beat it - it can go only a bit more than half this spped,, but not with its sound operating - and that is the rule: I figure no use running a loco you paid to have sound in without the sound.
The higher pitched chuffs are from 999, the deeper bass chuggg-ffs from the Shifter. Both are lovely locos. I paid almost exactly the same for each and in terms of quality, features, design, and running, there is really not much to chose between them. This leads me to conclude that both MTH and Lionel make darn good locos and offer equivalent value. I love them both. 999 will be repainted, and then its driving rods and such neolubed and the loco weathered, as the Shifter already is.
