MTH ELECTRIC TRAINS

Six decades before Amtrak's Acela, the New Haven's streamlined I-5 Hudsons ruled what would later be called the Northeast Corridor. Operating under bankruptcy in the depths of the Depression, the New Haven in 1936 solicited bids for a new steam passenger engine to replace its fleet of overworked and tired I-4 Pacifics. Almost all previous steamers and nearly all first-generation diesels on the New Haven were Alco products. But Baldwin got the nod for the I-5 order because it was the sole firm that would meet the railroad's price of $110,000 per engine. The only streamlined steam power in New England and the last steamers built for the New Haven, the ten gleaming black and stainless steel I-5's arrived on the property in 1937. Their Assignment: 12 eastbound and 12 westbound trains daily on the 156.8-mile Shore Line from Boston's South Station to New Haven, where electric power took over for the final sprint to New York City. The new I-5s easily met the New Haven's need for a locomotive that could accelerate quickly to 70 mph between the Shore Line's many stops, while pulling a train of 14 or more cars. Within less than five years, however, the arrival of Alco DL-109 diesels challenged the I-5s supremacy on the Colonial and other crack passenger trains. Because it beat the new diesels in medium and high-speed acceleration, the I-5 remained the preferred power on the New Haven's top passenger run, the extra-fare Merchant's Limited. But by 1950 a new fleet of Alco PA passenger diesels had doomed the handsome I-5s to the scrap line. New for 2005, MTH announces the most accurate and feature-laden I-5 ever built in O scale. Researched extensively from New Haven blueprints and photos, our model will feature prototypically correct bright metal striping on the engine and matching aluminum paint striping on the tender, as well as the steamboat-style whistle that distinguished this New Haven speedster. Two versions will be offered; engine 1401 as built with block tender lettering and full driver striping, and engine 1406 as she appeared in the 1940's with a large script tender herald.