Why has no manufactuer modeled this engine for O gauge?

Maybe due to the fact that no manufacturer in 3-Rail has offered a model, ANY model, of a USRA heavy Mikado?

And the road name is?

Write the manufacturers and suggest...no kidding...if enough people do they would!

Except for the fact, I believe the 587 is a USRA Light Mikado. 

MTH offered one lettered for NKP, minus the NKP numberboards and big tender.

Rusty

That's the Nickel Plate 587.

Bob 

OK, but we all still need a USRA heavy Mikado.

Since MTH apparently already offered a model of the NKP Mike, maybe if enough folks campaigned for a "more correct appearing" model, MTH would run it again.

Agreed. I'd buy one in a New York minute. Or, since railroad watches all keep the same time, a Milwaukee Road minute. 

Guys:  Can't help you on the NKP #587, if it is, in fact, a USRA Light Mike.  Other than to say that both MTH and Lionel have made USRA light Mikes.  In fact we were running an MTH version, painted NYC last night.  Nice engine, good sounds, pulls well.  You could strip one of those, if you can locate one and create your own #587.

But for you guys standing in line waiting for a USRA Heavy Mikado, your wait is almost over!  I have it on pretty good authority than Lionel has one in the wings in their next catalog.  sit will be in the Legacy Vision line and should be everything for which you have been hoping.  (Can't tell you my source.)

Mine will, of course, be a Milwaukee Road L-3 class.

Paul Fischer

NKP 587 is undergoing restoration at her home, the Indiana Transportation Museum:

https://itm.org/nkp587.php

The Berkshire tender gives 587 a definite NKP look - very good looking indeed.    I don't think it would be too hard to make up a good looking model - perhaps Lionel or MTH could do one up and send some proceeds to the restoration project.

Maybe if someone sent a logical eMail request to Mike Wolf or Andy E. about combining the MTH 2-8-2 model with the tender from their 765 Berk model, and add those distinctive NKP number boards, the folks at MTH might be agreeable to offering same. Especially since NO NEW TOOLING would be involved.

Concerning the current NKP 587 restoration/rebuild, I thought I read someplace that their museum is now "land locked". Is that really true?

Ahem. I've been here before, but:

The Williams/Samhongsa brass Mikado of the 1980's is not a USRA Light - it is 

actually a USRA Heavy (look at the domes and the stack, for example). Put one side-by-side with a good USRA Light Mikado model - like the MTH or K-line pieces - the early

Williams brass loco is a USRA Heavy. I have both the Williams and MTH models

on shelves, one above the other. Obvious.

But don't tell anyone; that leaves more of them for me - cheap. 

I believe that's the case - I'll check with my brother who's one of the engineers who handles runs for ITM.

I've often wondered about that Williams Mikado - in some photos it looks like a heavy, in others not so much. I asked a big Williams dealer about it once and he wasn't sure, but he thought it was a light. 

Maybe I'll get one. They go pretty cheap on eBay. Does it have a flywheel and the later, more robust drive system? (The early Williams drive system transmits power via a rather fragile plastic U-joint.) Should be easy enough to upgrade to DCS or TMCC. If there's no flywheel I'd have to use ERR. 

Williams used the same boiler on their Mikado that they used for their USRA Heavy Pacific.

Rusty

Email the various companies and request it. MTH, in particular, is very responsive to customer feedback.

A few years back I really wanted someone to make some scale Pan Am box cars, so I wrote MTH and asked them if they'd make some. I got nice response back from Andy Edleman letting me know that he got my request and he would see what he could do. At the time I figured it was just a canned response and my reaction was along the lines of "Yeah, right. They don't care what I have to say". Turns out I was wrong. I was blown away when a year or two later MTH started cataloging Pan Am box cars! Apparently I wasn't the only person asking for those cars!

So the lesson I learned is that, YES, they do listen to their customers. At least MTH does.

Thanks,

Eric Siegel

I'd like to see someone offer a "preservation series" of steam locos running today.

Nice to know about the Williams.  I have one and it is dwarfed by almost everything around here except switchers.  Parked it next to an Overland scale light mike, and the only real difference in overall size was the cab - I think the Williams was larger.

Still, on my railroad this thing looks like an S scale model on an O scale mechanism.  I shall check it against USRA Heavy drawings next time I get off the couch.

Lots of great things in this thread.

First - yes,  we need a USRA Heavy Mike

Second - yes, we need a "preservation series" although Weaver and 3rd Rail have done a good job with preservation-era steam

Third - #587 as she appears today is a very easy kitbash. Take any USRA light Mike, add the NKP front end details and grab a tender off anyone's NKP Berkshire. Voila!

Not just one, not just this one, but many...and still we get yet other versions of the

same few tired prototypes.  YAWN!

Sunset/3rd Rail announced, more than two years ago, both the NYC heavy H10a/b, and the C&O K3/K3a Mikados, and couldn't get enough reservations/orders to proceed with production. You would think that NYC and C&O modelers would have jumped on those models with both feet!

On the other hand, when Sunset/3rd Rail announced the Great Northern O8 Mikados (the largest & heaviest 2-8-2s ever), the reservations rolled in quickly, and the finished models arrived a month or so ago. What does that tell us? Hard to say, but maybe the Great Northern modelers support the manufacturers more than the NYC and C&O modelers?

About 5-6 years ago I did a Forum poll[actually several over time] to determine how many of the Kudzu class would commit to purchase a Southern Ms-4 Heavy Mikado. In response there were many "maybes" but only 5 commitments received, including my two. Importers simply will not run the risk on that basis.

In 1990 Williams produced a brass Southern Ry Mikado road-numbered in the 4800 Ms-4 class. But actually the Williams engine is slightly smaller that the Ms class of Lionel's 4501.

Well, if you want to do some work: Stevenson Preservation Lines catalogs a (former) Baldwin loco works USRA Heavy Mike kit ($580 plus serious work). Perhaps they will sell just the boiler. Then you can re-use a Willams chassis, cab, dome, stack, and so forth. You can then detail the loco to suit your favorite road. I don't know about re-using the Willams cylinders; they look a little undersized, but you might also order the Stevenson cylinders and retrofit them to the Williams frame.

You very well may have a far better chance of acquiring a Heavy Mike this way than hoping the Lionel/MTH/Weaver/3rd Rail will produce one for you.

it escapes me why some enterprising manufacturer hasn't invested in other USRA locos than the Light Mike, Heavy Pacific, and 2-8-8-2. A Heavy Mike could be re-issued every couple of years detailed to suit some of the various permutations and combinations that existed: according to the MR Steam Locomotive Cyclopedia 23 railroads used either original or copies of this loco.

The Ms-4 Heavy Mikado,with USRA specification influence, was Southern Railway's mainline freight power for 30 years, 1923-53. The railways most important revenue producer throughout the steam era.  

A constructive suggestion!

Joe Scales up in southern Virginia made some very nice Southern Ms-4s [two rail] in his basement machine shop. I had opportunity to run one during an operating session at his home. 

Last report I received from a mutual O-gauger was that Joe is deceased. A good guy and a skillful one.