Walthers HO scale Electro-Motive Division E8A diesel locomotive

Sporting the Pennsylvania RR’s five-stripe livery, this HO scale E8A from Walthers captures the diesel rumble and sleek lines of its prototype. The E8A uses the same tooling and mechanism as the Union Pacific version that I reviewed in the April 2011 Model Railroader. Part of the WalthersProto line, the E8A is available with a SoundTraxx Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder.

Passenger power. Between 1950 and 1952 the Pennsylvania RR received 74 E8A locomotives from General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division. The PRR E8As were assigned to all non-commuter passenger trains through the 1950s. Some of the E8As later served on Penn Central, Conrail, Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, and Metropolitan Boston Transportation Authority trains.

The model. The HO E8A matches prototype drawings in the Model Railroader Cyclopedia: Vol. 2, Diesel Locomotives (Kalmbach Publishing Co., out of print).
 
The plastic body shell is sharply molded. The many factory-installed detail parts include grab irons, etched-metal Farr air intake grills, and train-phone antennae. User-installed cab wind deflectors, pilot door, train crew figures, and other details are included.

The Tuscan Red paint is smoothly applied and matches Walthers’ Broadway Limited passenger cars. The lettering and PRR keystone herald are correctly placed, according to prototype photos. I appreciated that the five pinstripes are straight and are correctly applied over the side porthole windows.

Performance. I ran the locomotive with a Model Rectifier Corp. Tech 4 direct current (DC) power pack. The E8A accelerated to 75 mph. The prototype could be geared for top speeds between 85 and 117 mph. Pennsy had its E8As geared for a 98 mph top speed.

In DC sound and lights came on at 6.5 volts. As I advanced the throttle, the engine rpms ramped up and sounded like an EMD 567 diesel, but didn’t have the out-of-phase sound of twin diesel engines in a single locomotive. At speeds of under 5 scale mph the bell rang automatically. When I flipped the direction switch to reverse the locomotive, three horn blasts sounded. These automatic sound effects can be disabled, but this requires a DCC system or a DC sound controller, such as the MRC Tech 6.

Using an MRC Prodigy Advance DCC system I triggered sound effects including a long and short horn blast, bell, and coupler sounds. The model’s horn sounds like the Nathan M3 air horn found on the prototype.

I easily changed the address of each locomotive to its road number and advance consisted them. I also programmed configuration variables (CVs) 21 and 22 so that the functions were controllable under the consist address.

The SoundTraxx decoder supports many other CVs, including those that control a built-in seven-band sound equalizer and speed tables. A diesel user manual is available as a free computer download at www.soundtraxx.com.

The pair of WalthersProto E8A locomotives had no trouble hauling the Broadway Limited cars on the MR club layout, the Milwaukee, Racine & Troy. The DCC-equipped locomotives made this HO scale model of Pennsy’s signature train sound as good as it looked.

Price: DCC sound equipped: $499.98 (A-A set), $259.98 (single A or E7B unit). DC only: $349.98 (A-A set), $179.98 (single A or E7B unit).

Manufacturer
Wm. K. Walthers Inc.
P.O. Box 3039
Milwaukee, WI 53201
walthers.com

Road numbers: (A-A sets): 5804A/5807A, 5712A/5713A. (A units only): 5803A, 5710A. (E7B): 5840B, 5848B

Era: 1952 to 1955 (as decorated)

Features

• All-wheel drive and electrical pickup
• Proto-Max metal knuckle couplers at correct height
• Dual 32mm diameter speakers (DCC sound version only)
• Five-pole skew-wound motor with brass flywheels
• Metal wheels in gauge
• Minimum radius: 18″ (Note that cars require 24″ radius)
• Weight: 19 ounces each