Product Description
Announced Date:
Feb 2024
Released Date:
Nov 2024
Individually Boxed:
Yes
Road Name: Western Maryland
Road Number: 208
Product Line: Premier
Scale: O Scale
Features:
Intricately Detailed, Die-Cast Boiler and Chassis
Intricately Detailed, Die-Cast Tender Body
Authentic Paint Scheme
Real Tender Coal Load
Die-Cast Locomotive Trucks
Handpainted Engineer and Fireman Figures
Painted Cab Backhead Gauges
Legible Builders Plates
Metal Handrails, Whiste and Bell
Tender Truck Chains
Metal Wheels and Axles
Remote-Controlled Proto-Coupler
O Scale Kadee-Compatible Coupler Mounting Pads
Prototypical Rule 17 Lighting
Constant Voltage LED Headlight
Operating LED Firebox Glow
Operating LED Marker Lights
Operating LED Numberboard Lights
Lighted LED Cab Interior
Operating Tender LED Back-up Light
Powerful 5-Pole Precision Flywheel-Equipped Skew-Wound Motor
Operating ProtoSmoke System
Steaming Quillable Whistle
Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments
Wireless Drawbar
1:48 Scale Dimensions
Onboard DCC/DCS Decoder
Proto-Sound 3.0 With The Digital Command System Featuring Quillable Whistle With Passenger Station Proto-Effects
Unit Measures: 23” x 2 5/8” x 3 11/16”
Operates On O-36 Curves
Steam DCC Features
F0 Head/Tail light
F1 Bell
F2 Horn
F3 Start-up/Shut-down
F4 PFA
F5 Lights (except head/tail)
F6 Master Volume
F7 Steaming Whistle
F8 Rear Coupler
F9 Forward Signal
F10 Reverse Signal
F11 Grade Crossing
F12 Smoke On/Off
F13 Smoke Volume
F14 Idle Sequence 3
F15 Idle Sequence 2
F16 Idle Sequence 1
F17 Extended Start-up
F18 Extended Shut-down
F19 Labor Chuff
F20 Drift Chuff
F21 One Shot Doppler
F22 Coupler Slack
F23 Coupler Close
F24 Single Horn Blast
F25 Engine Sounds
F26 Brake Sounds
F27 Cab Chatter
F28 Feature Reset
Overview:
At the very apex of the Roaring Twenties, just months before 1929 stock market crash, the Central Railroad of New Jersey inaugurated its twice-daily Blue Comet service between Jersey City and Atlantic City. Heading the fast, luxurious trains were the CNJ’s nearly-new Baldwin-built P47 Heavy Pacifics. Three locomotives — painted in a beautiful blue livery with nickel trim, carrying the train’s name on a bronze plate under the feed water heater, and numbered 831, 832 and 833 — covered The Blue Comet’s fast schedule along the Jersey shoreline. Two sister engines were assigned to lesser CNJ name trains: No. 834 in green pulled The Bullet while No. 835 in black livery hauled The Queen of the Valley.
The Blue Comet consist was painted in blue to symbolize the sea and sky of the Jersey shore, with a cream window band to represent both the shoreline’s pristine sand and a comet streaking through the heavens. In a departure from normal railroad practice, the cars carried the train name rather than the railroad name on their letterboards. The rolling stock consisted of rebuilt coaches and diners trailed by an open-platform brass-railed observation, with each car named for a different comet. The Blue Comet was also the first train east of the Mississippi to be equipped with roller bearing trucks.
Joshua Lionel Cowen is said to have been a frequent customer on The Blue Comet, and he certainly memorialized the train far beyond its native Jersey shores. His Standard Gauge Blue Comet is perhaps the most well-known and desired Standard Gauge toy train ever built, and its popularity continues today, long after the prototype succumbed to competition from the automobile in 1941.