MTH Turbo Train...soon?

I have two of these on order with extra cars as well.  How long have we been waiting...??  I don't even remember what catalog they were in!

The TurboTrains were originally cataloged 2010 Vol. 1.  I have the Penn Central on order with NO extra car since the PC only ran with the original three units.

The delay has been waiting for the PS-3 slave boards!

I rode the Rohr Turbo Trains from Albany to NYC back in the eighties.  They were terrific trains, went well over 120 mph in some portions of the track.  They did not look like the photo at the top of the post . Where did the MTH prototypes run, or do they still run? The turbos here left in the early nineties, have been refurbished and are in storage somewhere down south, ,New Jersey or Maryland maybe, not sure. 

audi,

  The MTH prototype was made by United Aircraft and Amtrak operated them mainly on the New Haven to Boston route and for a while on a West Virgina route from Washington DC.  Amtrak poorly maintained the trains and they deteriorated under their care, eventually being scrapped.  VIA Rail ran these into the late 1980's and took much better care of their Turbotrains thus the longer lifespan.  The MTH turbo is called a "Turbotrain" wheras the other two types were "Turboliners." 

  I hope that MTH will eventually produce the Rohr turbo as well.  There was also an earlier turbo from France by RTG that Amtrak used in the midwest on various routes from Chicago in the 1970's through the mid 1980's.

At the recent Model Train show in Portland that MTH was at last weekend they said they had been shipped should be arriving soon?? Though the MTH website says not shipped yet.

Talking with MTH a week or so ago, they stated that MTH is having trouble with lighting in the couches and it may be summer before they are shipped.

I emailed them as well and received a lengthy explanation which boiled down to "they are delayed in manufacturing".  Z4000 all over again??

Maybe MTH could add two paint schemes to these before they finish production.  They would sell more if they offered the VIA Rail and Amtrak paint schemes in these! 

agree that a Via version is a must...

MTH has the Amtrak already cataloged 20-20035-1

Thank the almighty at least one train manufacturer checks out their product before sending it off ..

LaFondue,

  The Amtrak scheme MTH is offering is not the main Amtrak scheme used on the Turbotrain.  See attatched pics which shows the paint which was applied to the Turbotrains. The scheme MTH offers for Amtrak was a leftover from the Department Of Transportation demonstrator set with added Amtrak logos.  Two schemes that should be offered by MTH if they wish to sell more of these sets, the actual Amtrak scheme shown here, and VIA Rail, who operated Turbos in that scheme longer than anyone else.

@Vistadomescott....thanks for the infos regarding the Amtrak scheme....well we can only hope that MTH will do both very quickly

IMO the PennCentral paint scheme looks the best.  It is somewhat regal in appearance.

Anybody planning on getting a "real" update on the Turbo Train....perhaps asking MTH at York??

Any info would be appreciated other than what is on their website...

Thanks,

Alan

Hi Alan, discussed the Turbo Train with Mike Wolf when he was here for the NS Heritage Event.  They were looking at an October arrival, I suspected a York unveiling my guess.  Mike stated the new problem was because of the LED lighting.  He said with the PS-3 with the LEDs the rest of the train with incandescent lighting looked WRONG!  So they had to do some redesign for LEDs in whole train.

So hope remains eternal!

Ron

This is the paint scheme that I remember from the late 60s when I rade it from Boston to Grand Central Terminal.

Can anyone confirm the time period.

Jan

I have Amtrak and CN.  I rode the Turbo Train years ago.  I am lucky to have an Amtrak (RT-128) station down the street from my house. 

I really do not know what MTH was thinking in skipping the two primary paint schemes in this prototype? 

Well I may have a clue? How about a Second run? 

I want to obtain the Amtrak/Demo scheme for sure! This set if done right will be HOT!!!! as hot as the Aerotrain was when released!

This train, both model and real, seem to be cursed. Back in the 1970's Bachamn made an HO scale model that flopped so bad it is impossible to even find a dead one today.

I'd love to have the MTH  O version...but price and delays have really cooled me. So I looked at the Rapido HO scale model thinking maybe I'd buy it to fill my UA Turbo train fix. But after reading about that model on the web it seems many/most of them have major issues and are not well thought of. Maybe some day I'll pick up a used MTH someone has tired of!!!