PRR S-1 6-4-4-6.
After testing the Erie Triplex, I thought I'd test another sensitive engine. With the extreme length of the engine with all the wheels plus the tender is very long having two 8-wheel trucks, this engine can, also, try one's patience! This engine was made by Gem models and was factory painted in 1965 which is pretty unusual since about the only people painting engines back then was Tenshodo. It's very well detailed, including raised pen striping, cab detail and fully functional sprung tender trucks. The original owner never ran it and it sat in the box for 52 years. I can see why he didn't run it as it must take at least a 32" radius, if not more. It's just not the engine but also the size of the tender.
PRR only made one of these and, I believe, they only ran on the flat lands of western Ohio and was suppose to do 100 MPH for passenger service.
Video:
will post after uploading is complete.
The engine ran fine going East (up grade) with only the lead truck coming off once.
Must be a company truck as it's always at the station!
Heading West (down grade), the tender's trailing truck picked two turnouts.
When I first got it, I installed a TCS 1517 decoder with all the lights, ie: headlight (engine, tender), marker lights (engine, tender), four running board lights over each piston valve gear, cab light and fire box glow.
With fully working 8 wheel tender trucks, one would think they would operate better than just brass side cast trucks but the functional trucks tend to have some wheels not touch the rails.
As a 'backup' I bought some cast 8 wheel trucks and painted them. I'll have to try testing them on the tender and see if derailments are reduced. Another possible problem that I just noticed is the tender has skirting so the trucks are limited on how far they can pivot. I'm hoping my minimum 48" radius exceeds the trucks needed pivot points.
