A review of the 3-Rail O-Scale Pennsylvania S1 6-4-4-6 Passenger Set by Mike's Train House (MTH). More videos on my youtube channel or at www.ericstrains.com
in the start-up sequence, I love how when the Fireman is asked "How's she firing?" he replies "She's in good shape!" with just a hint of pride in his voice. That is a man who loves his engine, for sure.
Amazing how it resembles the prototype not only visually but also in that it has similar drawbacks. Beautiful engine and every time I cross that former PRR line I picture one of these racing across the flatlands.
"It looks as if it's grinning" -Gene Wilder from the 1976 film "Silver Streak." I almost got a hold of this model but it sold out at my local hobby shop, hopefully MTH will make another model in the foreseeable future. The S-1 is one of my favorite streamlined locomotives along with the F7 Hiawatha Hudson, the Dreyfuss Hudson and the Lehigh Valley John Wilkes
I lived in "Lyma" Ohio for around 1980-85. It wasn't much fun to see the line downgraded to single track. South side of Lima were remnants of the Erie double track main line to Chicago. I wish I could have lived there when Erie was going strong. The Pennsy tenders were incredibly magnificent cars, with the skirting at the bottom and the great logos on the side. I'm a big R. Loewy fan, especially when he goes full-bore with the Art Deco look. By the way my parents visited the World's Fair on their honeymoon. (We lived in New Jersey.) They had a couple of snapshots of the Trylon and Perisphere but none of the S-1, which, looking back, surprises me because my dad was an excellent builder, mechanic, and civil engineer. That display, steaming all day, was certainly a public relations stroke of genius. The Trylon has always been a most curious phenomenon. The form is rarely seen in everyday life, probably because of the impractical limitations on interior space.
That is a gorgeous beastly engine but my goodness I was stunned when you mentioned it had less than 50% weight on the drive wheels. I'm not an engineer but even I know that is not a wise move.
Wow, what a monster; that said , an absolutely BEAUTIFUL AND AWE-INSPIRING one. A land version of such icons as the Hindenburg and Titanic. Thanks for such a great video!
WOW! Absolutely loved your video of the MTH 20th Century Limited and always will; such an iconic train, but the S1 takes my breath away too. Thanks for your gr8 videos. :-)
Very nice model, that whistle sounds great although the S1 never actually had a whistle it had a Leslie A200 air horn just as a fun fact, but I don't put that against this engine, it's a beautiful set. Great review
Of note during the Worlds Fair, the miniature narrow gauge engines used at the fair were modified Vulcan locomotives with the iconic bullet nose. These engines now operate at Kennywood Park near Pittsburgh but one of two has been converted to resemble Thomas, unfortunately
There are rumors that the S1 along with its successor the T1 broke Mallard's speed record with the highest speeds for both being claimed at around 140 mph.
Alex Crawford unfortunately for this loco that's all they are as no one has ever produced any evidence to support these claims, such as timings of runs.
Matt O'Donnell if it had surely by now someone would have been able to pull the records and prove that this had occurred. Until then, this remains only a rumour.
@@mattodonnell8 yeah, they say that The PRR S1 had once hit the speed of 156 mph(249.6 km/h), a tremendous and unbelievable speed of a steam locomotive can archived.
What a gorgeous set. I was just reading about this locomotive the other day when I fell down a rabbit hole of Wikipedia articles on Pennsylvania steam.
Dude. Your videos have totally made me fall in love with trains, both real and replica. Thanks for all of this exposure so such a cool hobby. If only my bank account could keep up to my interests! Cheers .
This is why I really like Pennsylvania railroad trains a lot.. And I do live in Pennsylvania, but I cannot tell you where I'm at.. I'm gonna say this, "Unknown Location."
Tonys Amtrak Train Videos do you live around the only PRR. I live by the NEC in Delaware so I love watching the high speed trains and commuters run by.
Not to be picky but you have the rpo car on backwards as the hook has to face forward. As a kid my grandfather worked for the Milwaukee Road Copper Country Limited and when allowed to enter the rpo car I would play with the hook. Also MTH forgot to put a handle on the hook,it looks like, as you would have to open the door to operate the hook also. Great train set, I have a T1 as the MR used those.
+PghTrainFanatic I Know, But i don't know why but when the Y3s were Re-released in 2012, the hooter whistle was changed to a Hancock 3 Chime consistent to UP 844's Whistle
The whistle Lionel recorded for this is the same Pennsylvania 3 chime whistle that the Nickel Plate Road 765 wore on her visit to Pennsylvania in 2012. It is originally off of a PRR J
To see brief clips of Pennsy 6100 running in the Chicago area Green Frog Productions has an 8 disc DVD set entitled Vintage Steam Spectacular. Within that set is a disc called The Golden Twilight of Postwar Steam Pt 1. B&W movies show brief scenes of Pennsy 6100 slowly passing the camera of Gene Miller. The cover plate for the front coupler is missing and she is pulling a first class train as she parallels the NYC tracks on her left occupied by the 20th Century Limited which is also on the move. I don't believe the DVD is sold separately. However, the 8 DVD set which includes it as well as parts 2 and 3 is just under $35.00.
It's a beautiful model, and has a rather striking look to her, but I must know what came over Raymond Loewy to come up with a duplex with 6-wheel pilots taking away what little weight was distributed between the two separate engine units, it's more like double heading E6 class locomotives than a 6-8-6. The T1 was much better balanced though. I thought we learned from the Midland Railway that coupling rods weren't flimsy at high speed, that's what got us off of building the single wheelers.
RockyRailroad Productions The 6 wheeled engine and trailing trucks were needed to support the massive weight of the locomotive's overhang which did result in diminishing some of the weight over the drivers but with 84" diameter drivers, 300 lbs steam pressure and that long rigid frame it was bound to be a slippery engine. Once it was up to speed it could run like the wind but it was just too damned big.
RockyRailroad Productions Once again, Loewy was only responsible for the sheet metal styling and had nothing to do with the mechanical design. Unfortunately a lot of ideas look good on paper but don't meet expectations when put to fabrication. All those "what ifs?". Keep in mind that 84" diameter drivers were almost always prone to slippage when starting heavy trains but were essential for high speed operation. See if your local library can get you a copy of Al Staufer's Pennsy Power. You will enjoy reading it. Also, if you subscribe to Classic Trains check the Steam Glory 3 special edition (holiday 2012) for an article entitled Pennsy's T1 reassessed by David Stephenson. I think you will find the article very interesting.
Raymond Loewy designed only the "air-smoothed" streamlining for the engine and the tender (as he did when smoothing out the original riveted GG-1 by designing a welded skin). Detailed mechanical design resulted from the collaboration of PRR with several manufacturers, although the duplex design was primarily the result of pressure from Baldwin engineers (a builder with which PRR had close connections). Baldwin engineers had been pushing this concept for several years and wanted an opportunity to try it out in practice. Baldwin had proposed this concept to B&O around 1932-1933, but the road turned down the Baldwin design because of concerns about long rigid wheel base (B&O later built its own duplex 4-4-4-4 at Mount Clare shops in 1937). The S-1 was designed from the beginning with 6-wheel leading and trailing trucks in order to support the enormous boiler required to allow the cylinders to develop 6,500 i.h.p at high speed, an output the PRR had calculated was necessary to accelerate 1,200 tons of passenger stock to 100 mph in acceptable time and distance, and to keep it at that speed over the road. 1938 ARR tests had shown that at least 4,000 d.b.h.p. was required to achieve this result with 1,000 tons. The S-1 ended up with a maximum axle load of 71,000 pounds (versus 67,500 postulated). The engine was built by PRR at its Altoona shops early in 1939. (This information is taken from Brian Reed's essay "Pennsylvania Duplexii," in volume 2 of the book "Locomotives in Profile."
Great review, I have the older proto2 version. And I'll agree it's not happy on O72 curves. I've actually had it jump the track while backing down a O72 curve
Eric, would you ever review a LionChief Plus engine? I heard their Camelback is scale sized I thought it looked pretty neat. I don't think it works with Legacy however.
Great stream line design, I always enjoy when you tell the viewers the locomotive history. World fair story very interesting. Like you said, "it is big". MTH designers & engineers do a fantastic job in making their locomotives & passenger cars look and run prototypical. Looks great on your layout. The set price is always the best deal with MTH Premier / RailKing. Well done product review, this is why I stop by. Did you add the figures to the passenger cars? • Cheers from The Detroit & Mackinac Railway
Nice review. Regarding the cars, the mail hook on the baggage-RPO is backwards. Also, the coaches actually appear to be sleeping cars, judging both by the interior partitions and by the pairs of small windows above the side windows.
Priceless info about the World's Fair. My parents went there on their honeymoon. Incidentally, as a kid I had a hard time figuring out the "Trylon" and why it wasn't a pyramid. (Wikipedia has the same photo as Erich's,)
Good news: I'm about to bring out a song for the PRR since as far as my knowledge goes they never had a theme song. Problem: No free footage of the S1 exists. You allow me to take a bit of footage here into my song video? (I need a reply back either yes or no to be able to follow YT guidelines.)
Artistic question: The flipping of the display photo adds some interest and movement under your commentary. But couldn't you flip between a number of general images instead of just one? Thanks for your efforts!
Thank Goodness!! I'm glad someone pointed that out. If no one else had I was going to. I have several photos of the PRR S1 from all sorts of directions and I've never seen a whistle only the horn - perhaps it was a steam horn. Quite a few US steam locos of the 1940s had (steam) horns: best known were the SP Cab Forwards but also the NYC 6000 Niagara's, NC & St L "Dixie Line" #536, Milwaukee F7s (4-6-4), SP "Daylight" GS #4412. Those last three I have photos of those particular locos but the others in each of their class would've had those horns too.
Great review Eric I'm a big fan of your layout and I am a big fan of the Pennsylvania Railroad because of my two grandfathers being engineer's on the PRR
Thanks for another excellent review Eric. I especially enjoyed the high speed runbys. I am not sure but the screened opening just ahead of the stacks might be the exhaust for the steam driven air pumps or another front end steam driven appliance. Just curious but is a C&O Allegheny on your steam engine acquisition list?
A great example of form over function. They damn well knew that a locomotive that long and big would have problems and not articulating the front engine compounds this but doing this would compromise the design. Furthermore one of the big shortcomings of steam locos was that they only used steam once, european builders used Mallet (mallay) technology generally with a center cylinder or cylinders operating a crank on the front axle, this was the high pressure cylinder with large outside cylinders for the low pressure. This gave them two passes on the steam, ship engines were then triple reduction or even quad reduction, getting every bit of energy out of the steam, something they need to do to compete with the diesel. For both ships and trains the diesel won. Heck, up till about 1950 the brits built a number of steam powered highway trucks, instead of shifting gears you shoveled coal. Another example of this was the turbine locomotive, it used two marine turbines (these units couldn't reverse), the main forward unit was geared to the center axles and rodded to the others, this unit was about 7000 hp, for reverse a much smaller (1500 hp) unit was geared down a lot and I believe clutched so it disengaged when running forward. Problem was that turbines don't run well at really low speeds and you can blow out all your steam starting, they run fantastic at speed. I'll bet that they were much better at starting a train backwards than forwards, this could have been solved by having a third low hp turbine similarly geared as the reverse motor, to get things started and let big bertha do the speed thing once it got rolling. Both of these locos are popular as models but had only one prototype and were essentially failures in the real world. This is a problem with having 'designers' build things rather than engineers and mechanics. Dr. Porsche was not a car designer and his classic design of the early Porsche cars is still classic today when all the rocket ship and tail fin models that designers made now look kinda stupid. The GM diesels looked good when they came out and still look good today (when cleaned up) and their mechanical design is basically unchanged aside from technical updating. The jimmies put all their weight on the driving wheels and can both start a heavy train and then fly with it down the line. And do it efficiently and reliably.
This might have been really great if they did it 4-6-6-4, articulated the front engine and used Mallet technology. This would reverse the weight on drivers equation, go around corners, use less coal, and end up being really useful.
Sounds like it's trying to be super accurate to the real Pennsylvania 6100, right down to the flaws that haunted the real one in its short-lived service life... And honestly, I think that's a bad thing... If I ever had the money to build me an American O-guage railroad, I'd only buy a Lionel Vision Line Big Boy 4014 and be done with it for motive power. :/
+Jim van der Kolk If you do want some O gauge stuff, I suggest you buy a Lionel postwar train. They're on Ebay for good prices, but make sure to consult me if you want one. I know a lot about them and can tell you which ones are good or bad to get.
Hmm. If we can rebuild the largest locomotive ever built- Big Boy 4014- we can certainly work to improve this already magnificent engine. Improvements could include: - Downsizing the chunky 6 wheel bogies so more of the engine’s weight lays on the drive wheels - Linking the two sets of drive wheels with a geared axle so the cylinders don’t fall out of sync (cylinders on the same side would be at 180° separation, cylinders on the same end at 90° separation) - a steam whistle as opposed to an out-of-place air horn
James Groccia yeah, except the S1 was scrapped so there’s nothing to restore. There were multiple big boys preserved so that made it much easier to bring it back to life.
Hey Erin idk if u herd but there going to try and build one from the ground up an s2 or an s1 but idk if they can raise enuph money to get it going if they succeed it would be a huge under taking. Emagen seeing one of those going down the road it would be Awesome
the Baggage car is backwards, on the train. The mail baggage hooks should be faced in the opposite direction, with the hook opening facing the the tender.
@@Ericstrains Sorry Eric, it's my OCD factor, kicking in! You are absolutely right! HaHa. :-) It doesn't matter. I love your channel! My grandson and I are sharing this hobby, together. I live in Gainesville and he lives in Winder. We have 2 layouts. One is Lionel 3-rail O scale and the other is HO. We shop at Legacy & HobbyTown U.S.A., in Kennesaw.
Can you tell me if the S1 had the same tender as the T1. I am also trying to get some scale plans of the S1 in H0 or 0 gauge. I have looked on the internet but drawn a blank. Do you or any of your subscribers know where I might find them. Great video thanks.
Hi Sam, I have plans of both, jealous? They did have different tenders: The S1 had 250-P-84 and the T1 had 180-P-76 tenders (sometimes referred to as "Coast to Coast" tenders). The first number refers to the water capacity in thousands of gallons, the second number is the height of the tender deck above the rail in inches. The "P" means for passenger service. The actual water capacity was slightly different, the Pennsy just rounded up the numbers. - Dennis
Eric have you ever thought oc reviewing the lionel o-27 coast guard diesel train set or coca cola set i hear it was popular once, do you lnow alot about it ?
This was the real fastest locomotive in the world. It just never made it to be official. But of course don't get confused with the t-1's or s-1's. They look pretty similar.
Aren't the mail hooks supposed to be facing the other way? With the direction the model was going the mail hooks wouldn't have been able to pick up the mail bag.
Wow, they incorporated the flaws of the real engine into the model... That's damn impressive!
Well you have to incorporate every fine detail if you want to leave an impression.
4449s bell
in the start-up sequence, I love how when the Fireman is asked "How's she firing?" he replies "She's in good shape!" with just a hint of pride in his voice. That is a man who loves his engine, for sure.
Pretty sure that can go for most engineers with certain engines. 😂
This is my favorite steam locomotive of all time. And the model looks so beautiful and sleek like the real S1.
It's my favorite too!
This design is perfect for alternate modern steampunk world
I agree it looks like a steam powered bullet train
@@mrni6502 that was the idea. Back then, it was "the way of the future"
Wow. The Pennsylvania S1 looks really fancy.
We are waching a ghost train story. This ericstrains vid has 311 comments.
@@noelnalupa1755That’s cool and all, but who asked?
That’s the point. 😉
Amazing how it resembles the prototype not only visually but also in that it has similar drawbacks. Beautiful engine and every time I cross that former PRR line I picture one of these racing across the flatlands.
A beauty. You are right, great whistle. Very impressed with the chuffing.
"It looks as if it's grinning" -Gene Wilder from the 1976 film "Silver Streak." I almost got a hold of this model but it sold out at my local hobby shop, hopefully MTH will make another model in the foreseeable future. The S-1 is one of my favorite streamlined locomotives along with the F7 Hiawatha Hudson, the Dreyfuss Hudson and the Lehigh Valley John Wilkes
I love the S1, the design is very beautiful and its very a different loco. Thanks for reviewing it Eric
Too bad Pennsy didn't save this locomotive as a static display somewhere on the system. Horseshoe Curve?
it would be awesome if they did that
g bridgman na that a GP7 mabey in Altoona or the Hamburg no never mind
They put a K4s there for a few years then replaced it with a GP7. I'm only going on memory, I'd have to check.
We can save her and any other steam locomotive inside the computer : th-cam.com/video/GyuVQXiWv0I/w-d-xo.html
s t a n t o n c u r v e
I lived in "Lyma" Ohio for around 1980-85. It wasn't much fun to see the line downgraded to single track. South side of Lima were remnants of the Erie double track main line to Chicago. I wish I could have lived there when Erie was going strong. The Pennsy tenders were incredibly magnificent cars, with the skirting at the bottom and the great logos on the side. I'm a big R. Loewy fan, especially when he goes full-bore with the Art Deco look. By the way my parents visited the World's Fair on their honeymoon. (We lived in New Jersey.) They had a couple of snapshots of the Trylon and Perisphere but none of the S-1, which, looking back, surprises me because my dad was an excellent builder, mechanic, and civil engineer. That display, steaming all day, was certainly a public relations stroke of genius. The Trylon has always been a most curious phenomenon. The form is rarely seen in everyday life, probably because of the impractical limitations on interior space.
I wish she was never scrapped. Maybe converted to a 4-4-4-4 but not scrapped...
That would make the S1 into a shark-nosed T1.
James Groccia the T1 was already a sharknose. It’s design helped shape the Baldwin RF-16.
@@NOVARailandWeatherEnthusiast but they are bringing back to the T1 Locomotive in 2030
she needed the wheels to carry the weight, there are wheel weight restrictions on RRs just like on trucks.
That is a gorgeous beastly engine but my goodness I was stunned when you mentioned it had less than 50% weight on the drive wheels. I'm not an engineer but even I know that is not a wise move.
Wow, what a monster; that said , an absolutely BEAUTIFUL AND AWE-INSPIRING one. A land version of such icons as the Hindenburg and Titanic. Thanks for such a great video!
"A land version of such icons as the Hindenburg and Titanic." But thankfully not as costly in human lives.
WOW! Absolutely loved your video of the MTH 20th Century Limited and always will; such an iconic train, but the S1 takes my breath away too. Thanks for your gr8 videos. :-)
Thank you Eric.............Takes me back to my youth and my Lionel's in the 1960's
Very nice model, that whistle sounds great although the S1 never actually had a whistle it had a Leslie A200 air horn just as a fun fact, but I don't put that against this engine, it's a beautiful set. Great review
It was the most streamlined steam locomotive ever made as well as the biggest.
Of note during the Worlds Fair, the miniature narrow gauge engines used at the fair were modified Vulcan locomotives with the iconic bullet nose. These engines now operate at Kennywood Park near Pittsburgh but one of two has been converted to resemble Thomas, unfortunately
The bell on this engine sounds just like 4449's bell.
Yup
Exactly
I agree maybe 4449’s Bell Is a piece of the S1 duplex.
There are rumors that the S1 along with its successor the T1 broke Mallard's speed record with the highest speeds for both being claimed at around 140 mph.
Alex Crawford Well, with the 5550 T1 being built eventually, we will soon be able to find out
wikipedia says something about it getting a "speeding ticket" at 156mph IIRC
Alex Crawford unfortunately for this loco that's all they are as no one has ever produced any evidence to support these claims, such as timings of runs.
Matt O'Donnell if it had surely by now someone would have been able to pull the records and prove that this had occurred. Until then, this remains only a rumour.
@@mattodonnell8 yeah, they say that The PRR S1 had once hit the speed of 156 mph(249.6 km/h), a tremendous and unbelievable speed of a steam locomotive can archived.
What a gorgeous set. I was just reading about this locomotive the other day when I fell down a rabbit hole of Wikipedia articles on Pennsylvania steam.
I love the S1! It's such a pretty engine!
Its almost like norfolk and westerns steamer, but i wonder if this train would work on o-27
Tailterrier27 ha
Tailterrier27 Oh, yeah.
Tailterrier27 Not much.
(I will.)
Tailterrier27 That's really interesting.
Dude. Your videos have totally made me fall in love with trains, both real and replica. Thanks for all of this exposure so such a cool hobby. If only my bank account could keep up to my interests! Cheers .
This is why I really like Pennsylvania railroad trains a lot.. And I do live in Pennsylvania, but I cannot tell you where I'm at.. I'm gonna say this, "Unknown Location."
Tonys Amtrak Train Videos do you live around the only PRR. I live by the NEC in Delaware so I love watching the high speed trains and commuters run by.
I live in Pittsburgh
Tonys Amtrak Train Videos A
i live in Australia
Tonys Amtrak Train Videos i
19:14 sounds EXACTLY like Southern Pacific 4449's bell
Not to be picky but you have the rpo car on backwards as the hook has to face forward. As a kid my grandfather worked for the Milwaukee Road Copper Country Limited and when allowed to enter the rpo car I would play with the hook. Also MTH forgot to put a handle on the hook,it looks like, as you would have to open the door to operate the hook also. Great train set, I have a T1 as the MR used those.
Love all of your train reviews. I never knew there were so many different types of model trains.
Nice engine Eric! I'm waiting on Lionel remake this one along with the t1. 👍
+PghTrainFanatic I Know, But i don't know why but when the Y3s were Re-released in 2012, the hooter whistle was changed to a Hancock 3 Chime consistent to UP 844's Whistle
Could you imagine a Vision Line version of both the S1 and T1?
The whistle Lionel recorded for this is the same Pennsylvania 3 chime whistle that the Nickel Plate Road 765 wore on her visit to Pennsylvania in 2012. It is originally off of a PRR J
I love the protosound with the staggered chuff.
whoever dreamed a 6-4-4-6 can pull an elegant train
Love the high speed passenger service shot at 22:35!
To see brief clips of Pennsy 6100 running in the Chicago area Green Frog Productions has an 8 disc DVD set entitled Vintage Steam Spectacular. Within that set is a disc called The Golden Twilight of Postwar Steam Pt 1. B&W movies show brief scenes of Pennsy 6100 slowly passing the camera of Gene Miller. The cover plate for the front coupler is missing and she is pulling a first class train as she parallels the NYC tracks on her left occupied by the 20th Century Limited which is also on the move. I don't believe the DVD is sold separately. However, the 8 DVD set which includes it as well as parts 2 and 3 is just under $35.00.
It's a beautiful model, and has a rather striking look to her, but I must know what came over Raymond Loewy to come up with a duplex with 6-wheel pilots taking away what little weight was distributed between the two separate engine units, it's more like double heading E6 class locomotives than a 6-8-6. The T1 was much better balanced though. I thought we learned from the Midland Railway that coupling rods weren't flimsy at high speed, that's what got us off of building the single wheelers.
RockyRailroad Productions Raymond Loewy only designed the streamlined shrouding, he didn't have anything to do with deciding the wheel arrangement.
ericstrains I see, my mistake. Although I'm still curious as to what it's point was. Maybe the rollers at the fairground restricted it somehow?
RockyRailroad Productions The 6 wheeled engine and trailing trucks were needed to support the massive weight of the locomotive's overhang which did result in diminishing some of the weight over the drivers but with 84" diameter drivers, 300 lbs steam pressure and that long rigid frame it was bound to be a slippery engine. Once it was up to speed it could run like the wind but it was just too damned big.
allegheny48 If Loewy had shortened it and gotten all the drivers coupled to prevent wheelslip (Like a 4-8-6 perhaps) it could have worked better,
RockyRailroad Productions Once again, Loewy was only responsible for the sheet metal styling and had nothing to do with the mechanical design. Unfortunately a lot of ideas look good on paper but don't meet expectations when put to fabrication. All those "what ifs?". Keep in mind that 84" diameter drivers were almost always prone to slippage when starting heavy trains but were essential for high speed operation. See if your local library can get you a copy of Al Staufer's Pennsy Power. You will enjoy reading it. Also, if you subscribe to Classic Trains check the Steam Glory 3 special edition (holiday 2012) for an article entitled Pennsy's T1 reassessed by David Stephenson. I think you will find the article very interesting.
You know the T1 Trust should rebuild the S1 and have it run alongside the T1. That could be cool.
They need blueprints
TheExtremeAnimator and money 😂
Oh geez, the S1 is gonna take a longer time to build than the T1.
The number would be 6101, not 6100.
Great review Eric, your videos are always enjoyable. Just out of curiosity
which of your locomotives has the most pulling power?
+gbarnes4401 Definitely his Centipede. It has over 8 pounds of pulling power. I would be surprised if there was any other model ever that pulled more
The whistle of the S1 sounds like it’s ready for battle
Excellent in all aspects of this engine and video, thanks for sharing.
I love the whistle and the Bell on that train
Really nice looking steam. I think it has the best sound of all the steam engines you have reviewed.
Scott
Raymond Loewy designed only the "air-smoothed" streamlining for the engine and the tender (as he did when smoothing out the original riveted GG-1 by designing a welded skin). Detailed mechanical design resulted from the collaboration of PRR with several manufacturers, although the duplex design was primarily the result of pressure from Baldwin engineers (a builder with which PRR had close connections). Baldwin engineers had been pushing this concept for several years and wanted an opportunity to try it out in practice. Baldwin had proposed this concept to B&O around 1932-1933, but the road turned down the Baldwin design because of concerns about long rigid wheel base (B&O later built its own duplex 4-4-4-4 at Mount Clare shops in 1937).
The S-1 was designed from the beginning with 6-wheel leading and trailing trucks in order to support the enormous boiler required to allow the cylinders to develop 6,500 i.h.p at high speed, an output the PRR had calculated was necessary to accelerate 1,200 tons of passenger stock to 100 mph in acceptable time and distance, and to keep it at that speed over the road. 1938 ARR tests had shown that at least 4,000 d.b.h.p. was required to achieve this result with 1,000 tons. The S-1 ended up with a maximum axle load of 71,000 pounds (versus 67,500 postulated). The engine was built by PRR at its Altoona shops early in 1939. (This information is taken from Brian Reed's essay "Pennsylvania Duplexii," in volume 2 of the book "Locomotives in Profile."
Great review, I have the older proto2 version. And I'll agree it's not happy on O72 curves. I've actually had it jump the track while backing down a O72 curve
im sooo jealous you have every single train
I loved your N&W 611 review
Eric, would you ever review a LionChief Plus engine? I heard their Camelback is scale sized I thought it looked pretty neat. I don't think it works with Legacy however.
Great stream line design, I always enjoy when you tell the viewers the locomotive history. World fair story very interesting. Like you said, "it is big". MTH designers & engineers do a fantastic job in making their locomotives & passenger cars look and run prototypical. Looks great on your layout. The set price is always the best deal with MTH Premier / RailKing. Well done product review, this is why I stop by. Did you add the figures to the passenger cars?
• Cheers from The Detroit & Mackinac Railway
I feel almost guilty about how much pleasure the sight of this locomotive always gives me. What philistine ordered this work of art to be scrapped?
"Welcome to Leema" ?? Ouch! That may be how they pronounce it in Peru, but in Ohio it's "Lyma".
+kocn53 Yep, a silly mistake that could've been avoided by just...googling it!
lol yes. One of my pet peeves is the pronunciation by modelers of boxpok. it's box spoke, they are spokes, not pocks.
Is that pronounced at Lie-ma? Versus Lee-ma?
Hey Eric could you possibly do a review on the t1 locomotive
In the Galaxy Railways, the Vega Platoon’s train, the Iron Burger was based on the S1.
18:57
Nice review. Regarding the cars, the mail hook on the baggage-RPO is backwards. Also, the coaches actually appear to be sleeping cars, judging both by the interior partitions and by the pairs of small windows above the side windows.
Sounds like one of the most amazing engines to ride the rails at speed when the actual locomotive was riding on long runs. Great review though
Priceless info about the World's Fair. My parents went there on their honeymoon. Incidentally, as a kid I had a hard time figuring out the "Trylon" and why it wasn't a pyramid. (Wikipedia has the same photo as Erich's,)
IMPRESSIVE and very, very beautiful and interesting to me 👍
Good news: I'm about to bring out a song for the PRR since as far as my knowledge goes they never had a theme song. Problem: No free footage of the S1 exists. You allow me to take a bit of footage here into my song video? (I need a reply back either yes or no to be able to follow YT guidelines.)
A 36" O gauge locomotive and tender is very impressive. I would love to see it.
Artistic question: The flipping of the display photo adds some interest and movement under your commentary. But couldn't you flip between a number of general images instead of just one? Thanks for your efforts!
Have you thought of getting Lionel's latest rendition of the Reading T1 4-8-4?
Toby Pasman your wish is granted
What a beautiful Locomotive - Thanks so much 😎👍
The whistle is hauntingly good
Interestingly enough, the schematics for the real S-1 don't list a steam whistle, only the diesel style horn you see on the front.
There is also no visible whistle on the engine.
Thank Goodness!! I'm glad someone pointed that out. If no one else had I was going to. I have several photos of the PRR S1 from all sorts of directions and I've never seen a whistle only the horn - perhaps it was a steam horn.
Quite a few US steam locos of the 1940s had (steam) horns: best known were the SP Cab Forwards but also the NYC 6000 Niagara's, NC & St L "Dixie Line" #536, Milwaukee F7s (4-6-4), SP "Daylight" GS #4412. Those last three I have photos of those particular locos but the others in each of their class would've had those horns too.
Great review Eric I'm a big fan of your layout and I am a big fan of the Pennsylvania Railroad because of my two grandfathers being engineer's on the PRR
Nice looking and sounding model! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for another excellent review Eric. I especially enjoyed the high speed runbys. I am not sure but the screened opening just ahead of the stacks might be the exhaust for the steam driven air pumps or another front end steam driven appliance. Just curious but is a C&O Allegheny on your steam engine acquisition list?
You know if this train really did go faster than Millard, it be so much sadder that this was scrapped
Fantastic!, i would give anything to find that in N-Scale, but now thats impossible with Concor being virtually paralyzed
Eric, Just out of curiosity, how do you go about calculating the pulling power for your engines? A lot of things to consider in that calculation.
Any idea where I can buy one of these? Trying to collect all of Raymond Loewys' designs
Ebay. They always reappear for biding or purchases.
So beautiful!
It was so easy for me to fall in love with this engine 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
What a beautiful, powerful locomotive. But man, how could they have made such a huge mistake in the design?
A great example of form over function. They damn well knew that a locomotive that long and big would have problems and not articulating the front engine compounds this but doing this would compromise the design. Furthermore one of the big shortcomings of steam locos was that they only used steam once, european builders used Mallet (mallay) technology generally with a center cylinder or cylinders operating a crank on the front axle, this was the high pressure cylinder with large outside cylinders for the low pressure. This gave them two passes on the steam, ship engines were then triple reduction or even quad reduction, getting every bit of energy out of the steam, something they need to do to compete with the diesel. For both ships and trains the diesel won. Heck, up till about 1950 the brits built a number of steam powered highway trucks, instead of shifting gears you shoveled coal.
Another example of this was the turbine locomotive, it used two marine turbines (these units couldn't reverse), the main forward unit was geared to the center axles and rodded to the others, this unit was about 7000 hp, for reverse a much smaller (1500 hp) unit was geared down a lot and I believe clutched so it disengaged when running forward. Problem was that turbines don't run well at really low speeds and you can blow out all your steam starting, they run fantastic at speed. I'll bet that they were much better at starting a train backwards than forwards, this could have been solved by having a third low hp turbine similarly geared as the reverse motor, to get things started and let big bertha do the speed thing once it got rolling.
Both of these locos are popular as models but had only one prototype and were essentially failures in the real world. This is a problem with having 'designers' build things rather than engineers and mechanics. Dr. Porsche was not a car designer and his classic design of the early Porsche cars is still classic today when all the rocket ship and tail fin models that designers made now look kinda stupid. The GM diesels looked good when they came out and still look good today (when cleaned up) and their mechanical design is basically unchanged aside from technical updating. The jimmies put all their weight on the driving wheels and can both start a heavy train and then fly with it down the line. And do it efficiently and reliably.
This might have been really great if they did it 4-6-6-4, articulated the front engine and used Mallet technology. This would reverse the weight on drivers equation, go around corners, use less coal, and end up being really useful.
I wonder if MTH will do this again at some point
Sounds like it's trying to be super accurate to the real Pennsylvania 6100, right down to the flaws that haunted the real one in its short-lived service life... And honestly, I think that's a bad thing...
If I ever had the money to build me an American O-guage railroad, I'd only buy a Lionel Vision Line Big Boy 4014 and be done with it for motive power. :/
+Jim van der Kolk If you do want some O gauge stuff, I suggest you buy a Lionel postwar train. They're on Ebay for good prices, but make sure to consult me if you want one. I know a lot about them and can tell you which ones are good or bad to get.
Nah, don't have the space and money.
Outstanding review of this model, thanks for posting.
I love watching this engine run at 2x
These are superb models, can you tell me why they stick with the third rail system?
tradition
Very impressive locomotive for sure.
Good job on the PRR S1 passenger set. I like your other videos on TH-cam
Coming back to see this video I wonder if for fun they could have put a switch on it for “wheeL slip mode” for a fun view..
Another outstanding review Eric, no one does it better than you. I imagine that all the lights are LED?
Great review Eric! Just wondering, where is the whistle on the model? Also, is there a sound for the horn?
This art deco masterpiece would have been like a spaceship in 1939.
Hmm. If we can rebuild the largest locomotive ever built- Big Boy 4014- we can certainly work to improve this already magnificent engine. Improvements could include:
- Downsizing the chunky 6 wheel bogies so more of the engine’s weight lays on the drive wheels
- Linking the two sets of drive wheels with a geared axle so the cylinders don’t fall out of sync (cylinders on the same side would be at 180° separation, cylinders on the same end at 90° separation)
- a steam whistle as opposed to an out-of-place air horn
James Groccia yeah, except the S1 was scrapped so there’s nothing to restore. There were multiple big boys preserved so that made it much easier to bring it back to life.
ericstrains Who’s to say it can’t be done? We have the designs in preservation, and all the scrap metal of abandoned freight cars we could ever want.
You can tell this is an older model because I’ve notice one the newer ones you can hear the squeal of semi-released brakes when the engine starts
Hey Erin idk if u herd but there going to try and build one from the ground up an s2 or an s1 but idk if they can raise enuph money to get it going if they succeed it would be a huge under taking. Emagen seeing one of those going down the road it would be Awesome
the Baggage car is backwards, on the train. The mail baggage hooks should be faced in the opposite direction, with the hook opening facing the the tender.
If I ever travel back in time to 2015 and re-shoot this video I'll keep that in mind. Haha. :)
@@Ericstrains Sorry Eric, it's my OCD factor, kicking in! You are absolutely right! HaHa. :-) It doesn't matter. I love your channel! My grandson and I are sharing this hobby, together. I live in Gainesville and he lives in Winder. We have 2 layouts. One is Lionel 3-rail O scale and the other is HO. We shop at Legacy & HobbyTown U.S.A., in Kennesaw.
Eric, you do a superlative job!
Can you tell me if the S1 had the same tender as the T1. I am also trying to get some scale plans of the S1 in H0 or 0 gauge. I have looked on the internet but drawn a blank. Do you or any of your subscribers know where I might find them. Great video thanks.
Hi Sam, I have plans of both, jealous? They did have different tenders: The S1 had 250-P-84 and the T1 had 180-P-76 tenders (sometimes referred to as "Coast to Coast" tenders). The first number refers to the water capacity in thousands of gallons, the second number is the height of the tender deck above the rail in inches. The "P" means for passenger service. The actual water capacity was slightly different, the Pennsy just rounded up the numbers. - Dennis
The mail car seems to be running backwards. The mail hooks are pointed the wrong direction.
Eric have you ever thought oc reviewing the lionel o-27 coast guard diesel train set or coca cola set i hear it was popular once, do you lnow alot about it ?
Do you have any plans to or have you seen the Lionel Neil Young Pennsy passenger cars? I'm curious for you thoughts on them.
The rigid wheel arrangement of the S1 led to the development of the duplex-drive T1.
That is a beautiful set.
This was the real fastest locomotive in the world. It just never made it to be official. But of course don't get confused with the t-1's or s-1's. They look pretty similar.
please do a review with the lionel prr t1 and mth q2
Aren't the mail hooks supposed to be facing the other way? With the direction the model was going the mail hooks wouldn't have been able to pick up the mail bag.
You need to get the T1 duplex and then review that bc they meaning the S1 and the T1 are a lot alike
Raymond Lowey designed that? Good piece of info.
I was wondering if that engine would be able to navigate its way on your layout...