MTH 20-3510-1, Steam Engine 2-8-8-2 Y3, with Proto-Sound 3.0, Norfolk & Western
2-8-8-2 Y3 Steam Engine With Proto-Sound 3.0 - Norfolk & Western. WE ARE AN AUTHORIZED MTH DEALER.
Die-Cast Boiler and Tender Body. Metal Handrails and Decorative Bell. Lighted Cab Interior Powerful 7-Pole Precision Flywheel Equipped Motor. Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments. Unit Measures:30" x 2 3/4" x 4 1/4.The Y-3 offers model railroaders a unique opportunity: the chance to prototypically operate a massive Norfolk & Western articulated alongside Pennsy, Santa Fe, Union Pacific or Virginian equipment. The story begins during World War I, when the U.
Government nationalized the railroads and the United States Railroad Administration (USRA) was charged with designing a series of standardized, government-issue locomotives. Conveniently, the Norfolk & Western Railway's delegate to the design committee for the USRA heavy articulated showed up with a full set of blueprints for his own road's Y-2 2-8-8-2.Happily, the N&W was already in the forefront of articulated design. Like most early 20th century articulateds, the Y-2 followed Anatole Mallet's original concept of using steam twice: supplying high pressure boiler steam to one set of drivers, and exhausting that steam into larger cylinders that drove the second set of drivers. In later decades, supplying high pressure boiler steam to all four cylinders would become more common.
And so the N&W's Y-2, with some improvements, became the prototype for the USRA 2-8-8-2. The government allocated 50 engines to the N&W, where they became class Y-3 when delivered in 1919 from Alco and Baldwin - too late to help with the war effort, but successful enough that the N&W ordered 30 more copies from Alco in 1923. As delivered, they sported eight-wheel tenders and twin cross-compound air pumps on the smokebox front.
In the late 1920s, they were modernized with larger 12-wheel tenders and a Worthington feed water heater on the left side of the boiler; to balance the weight, the air pumps were moved to the right side of the boiler. By the next World War, however, the Y-3 design was showing its age and the N&W was beginning to build its ultimate 2-8-8-2, the Y-6b. Six went to the Pennsylvania Railroad, where they became class HH1, working on drag freights between Hagerstown, MD and Harrisburg, PA during the war and later in Ohio until retirement in 1947-49. The Union Pacific bought five and used them for two years as class MC-57 in Wyoming.
On the Santa Fe, eight Y-3s became helper engines on the Raton Pass through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains between Colorado and New Mexico. The remaining N&W Y-3s, meanwhile, served out their later years in heavy switching and yard duty until retirement around 1958. The item "MTH 20-3510-1, Steam Engine 2-8-8-2 Y3, with Proto-Sound 3.0, Norfolk & Western" is in sale since Thursday, April 25, 2019. This item is in the category "Toys & Hobbies\Model Railroads & Trains\O Scale\Locomotives". The seller is "vztech" and is located in Taunton, Massachusetts.
This item can be shipped worldwide.
- Gender: Boys & Girls
- State of Assembly: Ready to Go/Pre-built
- Country/Region of Manufacture: Korea, Republic of
- Material: DieCast
- Type: Steam Locomotive
- Features: Operating Smoke Unit
- Color: Black
- MPN: 20-3510-1
- Vehicle Type: Locomotive
- Gauge: O Scale
- Train Operating Company: B&O
- Brand: MTH
- Grading: C-10 Mint-Brand New
- Control: Digital or Analog