MTH - RailKing Imperial Steam Locomotives - O Scale 3 Rail

4-8-4 Imperial

In 1937 the Southern Pacific trumpeted a new train in full-page magazine ads:Let us stand by the tracks of Southern Pacific's Coast Line, as thousands now do every day and listen.Suddenly from far off comes a musical note, rising. Round a curve flashes a streak of color. Here comes the Daylight, the most beautiful train in the West!

4-6-2 Imperial

The Pacific was the passenger locomotive of the early twentieth century. It was the next logical development of the turn-of-the-century 4-6-0 Ten Wheelers and 4-4-2 Atlantics. A four-wheel lead truck allowed the Pacific to track well at high passenger speeds, a two-wheel trailing truck supported a bigger firebox than was possible with a 4-6-0 and, as passenger car construction evolved from wood to steel, six drivers delivered enough power to pull an 800-900 ton train of heavyweight cars. Higher drivers gave a Pacific more speed but less power than a freight engine of similar size.

 4-6-4 Imperial

With the bold slogan "Nothing Faster on Rails," the Milwaukee Road inaugurated its Chicago-Twin Cities Hiawatha passenger service on May 29, 1935. Pressured by intense competition on the route between Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul - including the Burlington's pioneering diesel Zephyrs - the Milwaukee Road had turned to the American Locomotive Works to design the fastest steam locomotives of the day. The results did not disappoint.

4-8-8-4 Imperial

Just months before Pearl Harbor, the American Locomotive Company delivered the first Big Boy to the Union Pacific Railroad. The UP's Department of Research and Mechanical Standards had designed the locomotive for a specific task: to pull a 3600-ton train unassisted over the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. While the Big Boy is often cited as the biggest steam locomotive ever built, in fact it is not. The Norfolk & Western's Y6 and A, the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range's Yellowstones, and the Chesapeake and Ohio's Alleghenys were all in the same league, and some exceeded the Big Boy's weight and power.