MTH has modeled a brawny green champion of the late steam era that (thanks to the Great Northern’s management) won’t be lost on the nation’s O gauge layouts.
The Great Northern added the R1-class 2-8-8-2s to its roster between 1925 and 1928. The line decided to augment these with the more-powerful R2-class engines in 1929. The new class, as modeled by MTH, featured longer boilers, larger fire boxes, and cast-steel frames, all improvements over the R1-class.
Numbers 2046-2054 were built with open cabs, while nos. 2043, 2044, and 2055-2059 were built with all-weather cabs (beginning in the mid-1930s, the remaining engines received vestibule cabs). The R2s weighed in at more than 500 tons and could easily handle trains of 5,500 tons, far more than the capability of the R1s.
The R2s soldiered on through World War II and the Korean War and were gradually pulled from operation in the 1950s. The final service rendered by the R2s was for steam heat, and the last was sold for scrap in 1962.
The model
First off, I love the front deck of this R2 engine. It has a terrific cowcatcher and a scale coupler with a moving uncoupler chain and rod. Handrails bracket the deck, and the floor has a safety tread pattern. The front deck also features a headlight and illuminated number board.
The face of the boiler has four ruggedly stylish air compressors. Just above them, there are illuminated marker lights. A bell hangs proudly on the lower part of the smokebox.
There is an excellent level of detail along the boiler with add-on pipes and handrails (all painted green, black, or gray) and red valve handles. The smokestack has a “flapper,” like what you find on the exhaust stack of a Mack truck. Pretty cool. There are also whistles and pop-off valves on the boiler top.
The cab has a fully featured backhead and two crew figures. The running gear and drivers are exquisite, especially since they’ve been toned down in color from the normal chrome plating. The movement when under way is sharp indeed.
I can’t overstate how nice the paint job looks. I’ve tested some pretty large steamers, including Big Boys, Challengers, and Cab-Forwards, but this “little” 2-8-8-2 seems to have more presence on the track than any of them. I’d bet 80 percent of that is how nice the paint scheme looks.
The front deck, running boards, some undercarriage detail, and the front of the cylinders are black. The boiler is green with black accents. The smokebox and firebox are gray, and the cab roof and window frames are Tuscan red. The lettering tends toward functional, but it is well applied. The mountain goat herald on the tender is superb.
The oil tender is a Vanderbilt-style model. It has a nice level of rivet detail, simulated wood detail on the topside deck, and two great ladders and a pair of strong handrails. The rear light illuminates when the engine is in reverse. There’s also one very interesting feature you don’t see on toy train tenders: a hose! (You mate the hose with a pipe on the engine.) I consulted some reference materials, and this detail can be spotted on any number of prototype photos.
The coupler-to-coupler length of the model is 303/4 inches long or 123 feet in O scale. The prototype measured 118 feet, 93/4 inches long. The difference can be accounted for by the drawbar and oversized O gauge knuckle coupler on the tender.
On the test track
This was another fun engine to operate, and I found no flaws in its performance. The R2 has two pickup rollers mounted on the locomotive that are spaced 101/2 inches apart.
On the test track and with ProtoSpeed “cruise control” engaged, the locomotive managed an astounding 3.3 scale mph on the low end and a respectable 72.7 scale mph on the high end. This hefty beast mustered 3 pounds, 11 ounces of drawbar pull. With our mixed make and vintage 25-car freight train in tow, it was clocked at an easy 57.9 scale mph.
As for smoke, you’ll need a ventilation system for this baby! At first I thought the little cap atop the locomotive’s smokestack would bob up and down to the flow of the exhaust. Not so.
What did happen is that some smoke was forced out along the top rim of the stack, while more smoke wafted out around the steam chest for a pretty nice re-creation of escaping steam. This made the synchronization of the exhaust and the sound system’s chuff really leap out at you as the sound goes “whoosh” at the same time a torrent of smoke erupts!
The ProtoSound 2.0 system’s range of engine and crew sounds was quite impressive. It’s a great improvement over the original ProtoSound system.
We could test the engine in conventional mode only due to the unavailability of the MTH Digital Command system. Still, all conventional functions performed as advertised.
All things considered, this is another superb example of the art of making die-cast metal locomotives. Even if your tastes are for southern railroads or flat-out running over the prairies, the looks and operational quality of the Premier line R2 are great!
