Union Pacific O Scale Premier 4-8-8-4 Big Boy Speciality Passenger Set w/Proto-Sound 2.0

2006 Volume 1 Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy Just months before Pearl Harbor, the American Locomotive Company delivered the first Big Boy to the Union Pacific Railroad. The UP's Department of Research and Mechanical Standards had designed the locomotive for a specific task: to pull a 3600-ton train unassisted over the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. While the Big Boy is often cited as the biggest steam locomotive ever built, in fact it is not. The Norfolk & Western's Y6 and A, the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range's Yellowstones, and the Chesapeake and Ohio's Alleghenys were all in the same league, and some exceeded the Big Boy's weight and power.

But in the battle for hearts and minds, the Big Boy won. Perhaps it was the name, simple and direct, scrawled on a locomotive under construction by an Alco shop worker. Maybe it was timing, as the Big Boys hit the road just when America needed symbols to rally around. Maybe the UP's publicity department just did a better job of telling the world what great equipment they had. Whatever the reason, the Big Boy captured the imagination of railfans and the American public over the ensuing years, perhaps more than any other steam engine. In many ways it is the symbolic locomotive of the American West, as big and powerful as the country it sped through.

Writer Henry Comstock beautifully described the Big Boy's place at the apex of steam engine history: "A Union Pacific 'Big Boy' was 604 tons and 19,000 cubic feet of steel and coal and water, poised upon 36 wheels spaced no wider apart than those of an automobile. That it could thunder safely over undulating and curved track at speeds in excess of 70 miles an hour was due in large measure to the efforts of two long-forgotten pioneers. As early as 1836, the basic system that held its wheels in equalized contact with the rails was patented by a Philadelphian named Joseph Harrison; and a French technical writer, Anatole Mallet, first thought to couple two driving units heel to toe below one boiler in 1874."

This enduring symbol of American railroading returns to the Premier line for 2006, complete with industry-leading speed control, synchronized puffing smoke timed to driver revolutions, and a range of accurate sounds that characterize all M.T.H. locomotives. Our model features a Pittman motor and four traction tires for pulling power and speed that rival the original Big Boy - as well as authentic articulated chuffing sounds with the two engines drifting in and out of sync.

Outfitted in two configurations, the 2006 Big Boy Special Edition Sets includes your choice of a passenger consist or a freight train with either locomotive programmed with station or freight yard Proto-EffectsT. Each set is limited in quantity and will save you $300.00 when compared to the individual price of each item.

Set Features

Die-Cast T-1 Steam Locomotive

4-Car Passenger Car Consist

Locomotive Features

Die-Cast Boiler and Tender Body

Die-Cast Metal Chassis

Authentic Paint Scheme

Metal Wheels and Axles

Constant Voltage Headlight

Die-Cast Truck Sides

Precision Pittmanr Flywheel Equipped Motor

Locomotive Speed Control

Proto-Scale 3-2 3-Rail/2-Rail Conversion Capable

Remote Controlled Proto-Couplerr

Engineer and Fireman Figures

Operating Firebox Glow

Metal Handrails and Decorative Bell

Decorative Metal Whistle

Operating Marker Lights

Lighted Cab Interior

Synchronized Puffing ProtoSmoker System

Operating Tender Back-up Light

1:48 Scale Proportions

Proto-Sound 2.0 With The Digital Command System Featuring: Passenger Station Proto-Effects

Unit Measures:31 1/4" x 2 5/8" x 3 7/8"

Operates On O-72 Curves

Freight Car Features

Intricately Detailed Durable ABS Bodies

Die-Cast 4-Wheel Trucks

Operating Die-Cast Metal Couplers

Separate Metal Handrails

Fast-Angle Wheel Sets

Needle-Point Axles

Opening Car Doors

Detailed Interiors

10 Passenger Figures In Each Car

Overhead Interior Lighting