MTH 20-3939-1 - 4-6-6-4 Z-6 Challenger Steam Engine "Northern Pacific" #5100 w/ PS3

Product Description

Announced Date:

April 2024

Released Date:

Feb 2025

Individually Boxed:

Yes

Road Name: Northern Pacific

Road Number: 5100

Product Line: Premier

Scale: O Scale

Features:

Intricately Detailed, Die-Cast Boiler and Chassis

Intricately Detailed, Die-Cast Tender Body

Authentic Paint Scheme

Die-Cast Locomotive Trucks

Handpainted Engineer and Fireman Figures

Metal Handrails, Whiste and Bell

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 7-Pole Precision Flywheel-Equipped Motor

Synchronized Puffing ProtoSmoke System

Steaming Quillable Whistle

Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments

Wireless Drawbar

1:48 Scale Dimensions

Onboard DCC/DCS Decoder

Proto-Scale 3-2 3-Rail/2-Rail Conversion Capable

Real Tender Coal Load

Proto-Sound 3.0 With The Digital Command System Featuring Quillable Whistle With Freight Yard Proto-Effects

Unit Measures: 30 3/4" x 2 1/2" x 4"

Operates On O-72 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 Front Coupler

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:

In the early part of the twentieth century, most freight moved in relatively slow “drag” freight trains, and speed was secondary to just getting the goods delivered. The introduction of “super-power” steam technology in the 1920’s, however, enabled builders to create freight locomotives that combined speed and power. Perhaps the zenith of the fast freight engine was the 4-6-6-4 Challenger, first conceived by the Union Pacific Railroad and American Locomotive Works in the mid-1930s. The Northern Pacific liked what it saw taking shape at Alco and ordered its own, even bigger Challengers. One reason the NP engines were larger was the railroad’s use of large fireboxes to burn low-quality Rosebud coal mined online in Montana — coal that at least one fireman described as “damned close to dirt.” The first dozen Z-6 Challengers arrived in 1936, just months after the UP received its own first Challengers. Like 4-6-6-4s on the UP and the Western Maryland, the articulated Z-6s replaced older, slower rigid-frame engines — doubleheaded Mikados in the Northern Pacific’s case. The Z-6s spent most of their careers hauling reefer trains and fast freights on Northern Pacific divisions in Washington State and Montana’s Big Sky country, with occasional passenger stints leading the crack North Coast Limited. Sixty-nine inch drivers allowed a Z-6 to maintain 60 mph on the plateaus between the Northwest’s mountain ranges.

The Northern Pacific was pleased enough with its new articulateds to order nine more Z-6s in 1937. The same year, an additional six engines were ordered for the Spokane, Portland & Seattle, a jointly-owned subsidiary of the NP and the Great Northern. The SP&S engines were oil burners, but virtually identical to the NP Z-6s in every other way. Two of the SP&S engines were later sold to the Great Northern for use in Washington and Oregon. For a time in the late steam era, the thundering Z-6 was indeed the Northwest’s own articulated.