MTH HO South Shore Little Joe Electric withOperating Pantos, Sound & DCC 80-2414-1

Intricately Detailed, Die-Cast Metal Body. Die-Cast Truck Sides & Pilots. (2) Handpainted Engineer Cab Figures. Metal Wheels, Axles and Gears. (2) #158 Scale Kadee Whisker Couplers.

Directionally Controlled Constant Voltage LED Headlights. Lighted LED Cab Interior Light. Powerful 5-Pole Precision Flywheel-Equipped Skew-Wound Balanced Motor. Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments. Unit Measures: 12 3/4" x 1 3/8" x 2 7/16. Operates On 18 Radius Curves Diesel DCC Features. By the late 1940s, the engines on the Milwaukee Road's electrified Rocky Mountain Division were nearly three decades old and tired, and diesels were the wave of the future. Management was intending to pull down the overhead wires and dieselize the entire division. Then along came a big electric named Little Joe, and the wires stayed up for another quarter-century. The Joes were actually built for another customer half a world away, Russia's Trans-Siberian Railroad. But by the time they were ready to deliver in 1948, the Cold War had frozen sales to the Soviet Union, and builder General Electric was stuck with twenty 5,500 hp locomotives designed to run on 3,300 volts DC - most built to Russian 5' track gauge. As the Milwaukee Road was one of the few American railroads with overhead DC power (at 3,000 volts), GE offered the entire order, including spare parts, to the Milwaukee at the fire sale price of one million dollars.

At least one unit, painted in GE demo colors, was tested on both of the road's electrified divisions in 1948 and acquired the nickname "Little Joe" after Joe Stalin. Brazil's Paulista Railroad bought five more Joes, nicknamed them Russas and operated them until 1999. Engineers loved the new Joes because they were more reliable than the road's ancient boxcabs and much less stressful to operate.

But later in the 1950s a GP9 was attached to the Little Joe pairs and controlled from the lead Joe; this combination could run straight through electrified territory without adding or dropping helpers. Eventually, however, second-generation diesels brought an end to electrification, and on June 15, 1974, the last Little Joes folded their pantographs - ending 58 years, 6 months, and 16 days of Milwaukee main line electrification.

While most of the Joes were scrapped, three survive today: one Milwaukee Road unit in Deer Lodge, Montana, and South Shore units at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois and the Lake Shore Railway Historical Museum in North East, PA, just ten miles from the GE plant where it was built. This item is in the category "Toys & Hobbies\Model Railroads & Trains\Railroads & Trains\Locomotives". The seller is "sell_sa" and is located in this country: US.

This item can be shipped worldwide.

• Power Type: DC
• Assembly Status: Ready to Go/Pre-built
• Color: Orange
• Replica of: Little Joe Electric
• Wheel Configuration: 4-8-8-4
• Material: Diecast
• Scale: 1:87
• Year Manufactured: 2023
• Grade: C-10 Mint-Brand New
• MPN: 80-2414-1
• Control System: Digital & Analog
• Item Length: 12 3/4 Inches
• Gauge: HO
• Brand: MTH
• Type: Electric Locomotive
• Rail System: Two-Rail System
• Corporate Roadname: South Shore Line
• Item Height: 2 7/16 inches
• Features: Light Function, Painted, Sound Function
• Professional Grader: Ready to Go/Pre-built
• Item Weight: 3 lb
• Item Width: 1 3/8 inches

---