Now, here we are in 2005 and suddenly have two models of the electric locomotive with a most curious pedigree, the General Electric 750-type, or “Little Joe.” If you missed my review of the Weaver Little Joe in the July 2005 issue, here’s a recap: In the late ’40s GE built 20 of these locomotives for the Soviet railway system. Concerns over sending strategic material (such as locomotives) to the Soviets prevented their delivery. “Joe,” refers to Joseph Stalin.
Initially, GE tried to persuade the Milwaukee Road to buy the entire production run, but to no avail. One of the locomotives was loaned to the railroad for three months of testing on its Coast and Rocky divisions. As Noel T. Holley noted in his definitive book, The Milwaukee Road Electrics, the tests weren’t too successful. The Little Joes couldn’t pull the advertised tonnage – a showstopper on a mountain railroad.
Other problems, such as too-short pantographs (the Milwaukee had to install raised platforms on the roof of the loaner) and freeze-prone lines to the pantograph air cylinders made for an unpleasant experience. Still, Laurence Wylie, head of the railroad’s electrified operations, wanted the engines and was ready to bargain hard. He offered $1 million (the scrap metal value) for all 20 “as is,” plus available spare parts.
GE representatives were willing, but the chief of the railroad wanted to eliminate all electrified lines in favor of diesels, so he nixed the deal. It wasn’t until a power shortage during the Korean War that Wylie got the okay to buy the locomotives. By then, five had been sold. GE was in the driver’s seat this time, and demanded $1 million for the remaining 12 “as is.”
A Milwaukee Little Joe locomotive is on display in Deer Lodge, Mont., while South Shore Little Joes are displayed at the Illinois Railroad Museum, in Union, Ill., and the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, Penn.
The model
Yup, the scale-sized MTH Little Joe is another one of those back-breaking, die-cast metal locomotives. At 9 pounds 12 ounces, this baby will be noticed by your UPS driver, so be sure to give him or her a big box of holiday cookies this year!
From the tip of the front pilot to the tip of the back pilot, the model measures 86 scale feet long (211/2 inches). Add another 3 scale feet for the front and rear couplers. The prototype measures 88 feet 10 inches from coupler to coupler.
The tooling for the shell is flawless. The curves on the snout are gentle, and the headlight almost appears to be emerging from a pool of liquid metal (Terminator 2 style!). To my surprise, the handles on the nose doors turn and open the doors. You’ll find four more sprung doors on the cab body.
There are add-on handrails by the nose and side doors, as well as on the “cheeks” just above and behind the number boards and over each window. Paired with the add-on grab irons going up the side are nice boot-kick plates. The windshields have add-on wiper blades as well.
The pantographs really reach for the stars. At full rise, they measure 2 inches tall (8 feet) in O scale.
The only cosmetic reservation I have is with the length of the coupler arms. They extend beyond the pilot and look a little weird. In this department, the recessed couplers on the Weaver Little Joe have the edge.
The die-cast metal trucks are as impressive as those on the prototype. Worth noting is that the model features spoked, not solid, wheels.
The locomotive is available in five paint schemes: Milwaukee Road passenger and freight, South Shore, GE demonstrator, and Pennsylvania.
While both the Milwaukee and the South Shore really ran Little Joes, there were some important cosmetic differences between the locomotives. The most obvious is the framework of the pantographs (taller on the Milwaukee units) and the size of the pantograph bases (also bigger on the Milwaukee units).
Other differences are snowplows and multiple-unit cables on the Milwaukee units and different classification lights on the South Shore units.
So while the overall lines are the same, take a close look at the details if you are a stickler for prototype accuracy. Personally, I think this is a pretty darn nice version of the Milwaukee engine and am tickled that the O gauge hobbyist has a choice of two good models from MTH and Weaver.
On the test track
The Little Joe comes with two can-style motors, speed control, pantographs that raise and lower at the touch of a button, and a full list of ProtoSound 2.0 audio effects.
With 16 wheels, the Little Joe has an atypical drive system. Each power truck has four axles and the innermost with blind wheels (without flanges). The other three axles are geared, and the innermost of the geared axles have wheels with traction tires.
The pilot and trailing trucks pivot from the outer edge of each power-truck frame instead of being directly attached to the frame. The setup is similar to many O gauge GG1 locomotives.
On our test track and home layouts, the Little Joe ran smoothly and pulled effortlessly. Despite 16 drive wheels, the locomotive didn’t clatter like crazy through track switches.
The addition of the automatic pantographs is pretty clever. They raise and lower automatically as the locomotive changes direction in conventional-control or command-control mode.
In command-control mode the pantographs can be operated using an MTH Digital Command System controller.
As I noted in my review of the MTH Premier line GG1 in July’s issue, this feature, one that I expected to be a low-voltage thrill, turned out to be a darned impressive sight.
Between the pantographs is a removable cover (cleverly held on by magnets) that reveals a slide switch to energize the pantographs for true overhead catenary power pickup, a volume-adjustment knob, and a ProtoSound 2.0 battery-recharging jack.
While the Little Joe is designed to handle O-54 curves, we noted some slight hesitation and lurching at slow speeds on O-54 track.
If I hadn’t been standing there, holding a stopwatch and staring at the locomotive, there is a chance I wouldn’t have noticed this. I did not encounter any hesitation when running the Little Joe through O-72 curves.
The speed range of our test sample was 2.4 scale mph to 67.9 scale mph. The 9-pound 12-ounce locomotive had a drawbar pull of 2 pounds 3 ounces.
The MTH Little Joe is a superb locomotive with top-notch performance. It will surely find a base of fans in the electric locomotive community!
