June 3, 2009

MTH's UP 4-12-2 Articulated or Not?

Buy MTH Locos

One of the greatest experiments by the Union Pacific is now available in a ready- to-run HO format from MTH.

The UP 4-12-2 was an attempt to build another fixed-driver super hauler to replace the low speed “drag” articulated behemoths like the 2-8-8-0s and 2-10-2s. The loco enjoyed a brief history, being built only between 1926 and 1930; 88 units were produced in these four years.

In order to enable a model with this sort of wheelbase to negotiate the radii commonly found on today’s layouts, some prototypical liberties had to be taken.

The front three drivers have been articulated, something that hasn’t been done with “fixed wheel” locos since LGB did so with certain steam locos many moons ago – for exactly the same reason. As a result, the 4-12-2 will run on a 22” radius – the only problem being that in these tighter corners, the boiler swings out a staggering .5 inch over NMRA standard, making right-of-way clearance a problem unless you’re modeling the desert!

MTH saw the rivet counters on the horizon and has made it so you can lock the driveline, disabling the articulation. Unfortunately we couldn’t even begin to figure out how to lock it being that MTH provides absolutely no documentation on how you do so.

The loco itself has a ton of separately applied detail parts with very nice piping adding to its overall fidelity to the original. With its function-controllable marker and cab lights, it appears that MTH may have finally begun to consider DCC operators in their build process.

But appearances can be deceiving. The loco still has all of the limitations of it’s predecessors when operated on DCC. There is still no means to implement even the simplest of DCC programming: no momentum, no consisting, etc., etc. If you contact MTH and ask them about these features (like I did) they’ll likely tell you that you’re a DCC nut, and that you don’t represent a significant portion of DCC users (as they did me).

If this is the case, then probably 90% of you reading this would be classified as full blown, DCC lunatics in MTH’s eyes. It’s too bad, because once again, they’ve gotten half-way to producing a gorgeous locomotive that leaves us DCC 90 %’s frustrated because we still can’t operate it the way we can operate other makers’ products. This makes its $549.95 list price a little hard to swallow for something that is hand cuffed on DCC!