M.T.H.'s Lionel Corporation Tinplate Super 381 Electric locomotive will begin shipping this August.

By the mid-1920s, steam power was old hat, but electricity was still a new and magical technology. Lionel touted its electric trains as “More than a toy — AN ELECTRIC ACHIEVEMENT!” Out west, on a sparsely traveled mountainous railroad, General Electric Company and the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway were trying to prove that electric power was the Future of American Railroading.

Their five huge Bi-Polar electric locomotives had tamed the mountains like nothing before them and garnered national press coverage — especially with stunts like a 1924 “Battle of the Giants,” in which a Bi-Polar easily won a tug-of-war against a pair of steam locomotives.

It was only natural, then, that Lionel would model its top-of-the-line locomotive on the Milwaukee Bi-Polar. The 381, introduced in 1928, was the largest and most elaborate of Lionel’s Standard Gauge electrics. But it had a fatal flaw: its single-motor drive was inadequate to pull Lionel’s top-end passenger cars, the State Set. The 381 was doomed to be forever categorized as a poor puller, and soon the State cars were led by the twin-motored, but more ordinary-looking 408E.

Consider, however, what might have been: At the same time the 381 was conceived, Lionel’s designers built one sample of a “Super 381” — longer and more realistic than the production 381, and equipped with two motors. Whether the Super 381 was built in New Jersey or by the Italian toolmaking firm run by Mario Caruso, Lionel’s works manager, is uncertain.

Appearing for the first time in the M.T.H. Lionel Corporation Tinplate product line, this awesome recreation of the famed Super 381 is sure to be stunning at the head of the famed State Car passenger set.

Features
•Stamped Steel Body and Chassis
•Operating Metal Latch Couplers
•Metal Handrails
•Metal Wheels, Axles and Gears
•Unit Measures:23 3/4" x 5 1/8"x 6 1/4"
•Operates On STD-72 Curves

Sound Model Features:
•(2) Precision Flywheel Equipped Motors
•Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments
•Directionally Controlled Headlights
•Proto-Sound 2.0 With The Digital Command System Featuring: Passenger Station Proto-Effects

Traditional Model Features:
•Operating Headlights
•(2) Bild-a-Loco Motors

 ORDER NOW FOR DELIVERY IN SEPTEMBER 2011

 jkb