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. 

But in the battle for hearts and minds, the Big Boy won. Perhaps it was the name, simple and direct, scrawled on a locomotive under construction by an Alco shop worker. Maybe it was timing, as the Big Boys hit the road just when America needed symbols to rally around. Maybe the UP's publicity department just did a better job of telling the world what great equipment they had. Whatever the reason, the Big Boy captured the imagination of railfans and the American public over the ensuing years, perhaps more than any other steam engine. In many ways it is the symbolic locomotive of the American West, as big and powerful as the country it sped through. 

Writer Henry Comstock beautifully described the Big Boy's place at the apex of steam engine history: "A Union Pacific 'Big Boy' was 604 tons and 19,000 cubic feet of steel and coal and water, poised upon 36 wheels spaced no wider apart than those of an automobile. That it could thunder safely over undulating and curved track at speeds in excess of 70 miles an hour was due in large measure to the efforts of two long-forgotten pioneers. As early as 1836, the basic system that held its wheels in equalized contact with the rails was patented by a Philadelphian named Joseph Harrison; and a French technical writer, Anatole Mallet, first thought to couple two driving units heel to toe below one boiler in 1874." 

This enduring symbol of American railroading returns to the rails, complete with the industry-leading speed control, smoke output, and range of accurate sounds that characterize all MTH locomotives. Our model features a precision 12 volt 5-pole skew wound motor and die-cast metal construction for pulling power and speed that rival the original Big Boy - as well as authentic articulated chuffing sounds with the two engines drifting in and out of sync. New for 2011 is the addition of an AC 3-Rail Marklin system version for those who prefer to run their HO locomotives under the Marklin operating system. 

Features

•Die-Cast Boiler and Chassis 
•Die-Cast Tender Body 
•Authentic Paint Scheme 
•Real Tender Coal Load 
•Die-Cast Locomotive Trucks 
•Engineer and Fireman Figures 
•Metal Handrails and Decorative Bell 
•Decorative Metal Whistle 
•RP25 Metal Wheels 
•Interchangeable RP25 Metal Drive Wheels w/o Traction Tires 
•Sprung Drivers •(2) #158 Scale Kadee Whisker Couplers 
•Prototypical Rule 17 Lighting 
•Constant Voltage Headlight 
•Lighted Cab Interior 
•Operating Tender Back-up Light 
•Powerful 5-Pole Precision Flywheel Equipped Skew-Wound Motor 
•Synchronized Puffing ProtoSmoke® System 
•Locomotive Speed Control in Scale MPH Increments 
•Wireless Drawbar 
•1:87 Scale Proportions 
•Operates On Code 70, 83 and 100 Track  

Signature Series models offer the final word in realism: beautifully detailed M.T.H. O and HO scale models weathered to look like hard-working locomotives and rolling stock. Each model is individually weathered by a master modeler with more than 30 years of professional modeling experience. The resulting finish ensures that these new Signature Series models for 2014 will look right at home on any sceniced, scale-detailed layout.

All models are airbrush-weathered, using proprietary techniques that capture the subtle natural wear and tear produced by road dust, rain, rust, wind and everything else that railroad equipment experiences in real life. The Signature Series airbrush weathering process brings out details in a model that previously went unnoticed, and replicates effects usually obtainable only with chalks and pinpoint washes.

No two Signature Series finishes look exactly alike. Each model of the same engine or passenger set has its own unique finish, with noticeable but subtle differences visible in side-by-side comparisons. Because these models are designed to run as well as they look, each locomotive and car is sealed with a flat finish to allow handling and the use of smoke fluid. 

M.T.H. Signature Series models first appeared in 2012, providing hobbyists with unique offerings not previously available from a major model railroad manufacturer. Each Signature Series item is an excellent solution for modelers who either have not had the confidence to attempt weathering techniques, or simply don’t have time to do it themselves. Most importantly, these professionally weathered models can withstand the rigors of operation while providing the final element of realism needed to depict real-life railroading on an O or HO scale layout.