MP has runnability down. Like all the other MP steam, this one runs smoothly through the speed ranges. The slow speed control is excellent. The appearance is good on the rods/valve gear, drivers and tender. It is one of the smoothest running N scale steam locomotives that I have ever had. MT conversion is simple: 1015/1016 on the USRA Standard, 2004 on the Vanderbilt. Pilot coupler is another matter.
The boiler details are cast-on. It is noisy. Quality control is spotty. Construction methods are strictly 1970s.
It will pull three Lima or RR HW cars, easily.
The prototype on which these are based is the USRA light. That Railroad Across The River had thirty originals of this one and fifteen copies. The copies had Vanderbilts. MP sells both versions lettered for The Railroad Across The River. The numbers (two different sold) on those with the USRA Standard are incorrect. I am not sure about the number on the one with the Vanderbilt. The Railroad Across The River designated the originals P-5 and the copies P-6. Some of the originals lasted until the end of steam. Some of both operated North of Baltimore, but mostly they operated in Ohio and New York.
Hmmmmm. First a SPECTRUM 2-8-0, then a MP pacific. You will, of course, be aware, that The Railroad Across The River also operated originals of the USRA light 2-8-2, class Q-3, which MP also sells. MP sells them with a Vanderbilt and numbered for class Q-4, which were heavy mikados. The first USRA locomotive was a light 2-8-2 built for The Railroad Across The River, and can be seen at the B&O museum. B&O rebuilt both Q-3s and P-5s with high mounted headlights.
What you might consider is purchasing a Kato USRA Standard tender, trucks and mounting screws (available on Kato's website) and swapping out the MP for the Kato. While I have never affixed these to the pacific or mikado, I have affixed them to the eight-wheeler and mogul (constructed similarly to the pacific and mikado) with good results.
I do not use DCC, so I can not comment on that.
Ahh, the hissing and chugging issues its clarion and it just gets into your head, you can not get it out 'bricksrboring, bricksrboring, steamismovin, steamismovin, steamisrockin, steamisrockin..........' and the whistle wails and you can not resist............
The MP eight wheeler and mogul are also available lettered for The Railroad Across The River. The mogul would be inaccurate, as, with one exception, all of B&O's moguls were clearly nineteenth century power. The one exception is a class of moguls that worked Chicago as switchers and transfer power. They were little more than 0-6-0s with pilot trucks.
I am aware of two WM twentieth century eight-wheelers. They lasted until the 1930s, but I have no idea what they looked like. They could not have been useful for much other than maybe Baltimore-Hagerstown locals, as I suspect that an eight wheeler would require help almost anywhere else on the WM of the time.
It will remain one of the minor mysteries of preservation decisions why the only WM road steam power in existence is an oil-burning passenger locomotive. When you think of WM, what comes to mind is coal. What also comes to mind is lowly consolidateds and decapods at the head of hopper trains slugging it out with nasty grades in Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Oil burners and passenger trains come to mind when you think of the SP or ATSF. Oil burners and passenger trains are the last thing that come to mind upon the mention of WM. I know why WM had the oil burners; Baltimore's nasty smoke abatement ordinances. I just fail to understand why that one and not a consolidated or a decapod. No complaints, I just do not understand.,
