2-8-8-8-2 Triplex Steam Engine w/Proto-Sound 3.0

Item: 2-8-8-8-2 Triplex Steam Engine w/Proto-Sound 3.0

Catalog: 2008 HO Volume 1 Catalog (dc)
Product Line: MTH HO
Original MSRP: $499.95   Sale $425 Delivered
 

Features:
  • Die-Cast Boiler and Tender Body
  • Die-Cast Metal Chassis
  • Authentic Paint Scheme & Cab Numbers
  • RP-25 Metal Wheels Mounted On Metal Axles
  • Constant Voltage Headlight
  • Prototypical Rule 17 Lighting
  • Operating Lighted Marker Lights
  • Detailed Truck Sides
  • Detailed Cab Interior
  • Powerful 5-Pole Precision Flywheel Equipped Motor
  • (2) Scale Couplers
  • Metal Handrails and Decorative Bell
  • Decorative Metal Whistle
  • Sprung Drive Wheels
  • Synchronized Puffing ProtoSmokeŽ System
  • Locomotive Speed Control
  • Locomotive Cab To Tender Deck Plate
  • Detailed Tender Undercarriage
  • Interchangeable Traction Tire-Equipped Drive Wheels
  • Proto-Sound 3.0 With The Digital Command System Featuring: Passenger Station Proto-Effects
  • On-Board DCC Receiver
  • Operates On Code 70, 83, & 100 Rail Curves
  • Unit Measures:15 1/4" x 1 9/16" x 2 1/4"
  • Operates On 22" Radius Curves

    Proto-Sound 3.0 equipped locomotives can be controlled in command mode with any DCC compliant command control system. While the user won't have access to all of the incredible features of Proto-Sound 3.0, independent control over the locomotive is possible. This means you can continue to use your existing DCC controller to independently control your other DCC equipped locomotives in addition to your Proto-Sound 3.0 locomotive on the same track at the same time.

    When using a DCC controller, the following Proto-Sound 3.0 locomotive features are accessible:

     

  • (F0) Headlight on/off
  • (F1) Bell on/off
  • (F2) Whistle/Horn on/off
  • (F3) Start-up/Shut-down
  • (F4) PFA initiate and advance
  • (F5) Cab Light on/off
  • (F6) Engine Sounds on/off
  • (F7) Volume low, med, high, off
  • (F8) Smoke on/off
  • (F9) Forward Signal Sound
  • (F10) Reverse Signal Sound
  • (F11) One Shot Doppler
  • (F12) Crossing Signal w/City Horn
  • (F13) Extended Start Up
  • (F14) Extended Shut Down
  • (F15) Labor Chuff
  • (F16) Drift Chuff
  • (F17) Smoke Volume low, med, high
  • (F18) Single short whistle toot
  • (F19) Coupler Close
  • (F20) Feature Reset
  • (F21) Idle Sequence 1
  • (F22) Idle Sequence 2
  • (F23) Idle Sequence 3
  • (F24) Idle Sequence 4
  • (F25) Brakes auto/off
  • (F26) Cab Chatter auto/off
  • (F27) Clickety-Clack auto/off
  • (F28) Train Wreck


 

 

 

P. T. Barnum would have loved the Triplex. It was an engine of superlatives: more drivers than anything before or since, too big for the shops of its owner, the Erie Railroad, powerful enough to pull a train nearly five miles long. Ninety years ago, in the days before multiple-unit control allowed one throttle to control several locomotives, the Triplex was the ultimate attempt to put as much power as possible in the hands of a single engineer. In the end, it proved a noble, flamboyant, but less-than-successful experiment. Baldwin Locomotive Works built three triplexes between 1914 and 1916 for pusher service on the Erie Railroad's daunting Susquehanna Hill (also known as Gulf Summit) near Deposit, N.Y. The cylinders of the Triplex's middle engine were powered by high pressure steam direct from the boiler, while the front and rear engines used low pressure steam exhausted from the middle cylinders.

Each triplex replaced three ordinary helper engines, and the new locomotives worked well enough to stay on the Erie roster for more than a decade. But the design proved a bit over the top and only one more Triplex was ever built, for the Virginian Railway. Even with their huge boilers, the locomotives could only make enough steam to go 10 mph. One reason was poor draft in the firebox, because only the front cylinders exhausted through the smokebox and created draft; the rear cylinders exhausted through a separate smokestack on the tender. Another inherent problem with the design was that traction from the rear engine decreased as the boiler used coal and water and the tender got lighter.

The M.T.H. Triplex recreates the flamboyance of the original design but runs much better than the prototype ever did. Only MTH engineering could make such a complex model run smoothly and steadily at speeds from a barely perceptible crawl to wide-open throttle - just ask any modeler who owns an M.T.H. O scale or One Gauge Triplex. For 2007 the Triplex debuts in our HO lineup, complete with a full range of engine sounds, puffing smoke, speed control, full Rule 17 lighting, and ready to run under conventional, DCC, or M.T.H. Digital Command System (DCS) control.

Did You Know?

The Triplex was engineered to haul 640 fifty-ton cars in a train almost five miles long. But the couplers and draft gear of the early twentieth century could not have handled such a load, so the 2-8-8-8-2 was used as a pusher and never put to a full test.

READ MODEL RAILROADER'S REVIEW

Just click on the link below

Model Railroader Product Review