OScale Trains

Product News & Reviews(more flange-clearance history, perchance?), this gives a tailheavyappearance to the engine, hence my “It doesn’t quitehang together” impression. Also, the cab walls are adjusted toaccommodate, deepening the windows (which, by the way,should be three-panel, not two). Such is the risk of modeling alandmark piece of design history. “Feel” can be lost very quickly,since visual balance was a hallmark of Streamline-Era design.Paint and LetteringThe original striping and lettering on the ‘38 Century wasdone in Dupont Duco Flat Aluminum and Onyx Blue. Twothings happened with this paint with the daily washing of bothlocomotives and cars. The Flat Aluminum faded to a chalkyalmost-white, giving rise to the long history of models of NYCpassenger equipment lettered and striped in white (which reallyisn’t a bad approximation, by the way). The other issue was thatthe Onyx Blue peeled off in great big chunks. While the FlatAluminum remained as the standard lettering and striping colorthroughout the various developments of NYC gray passengerequipment until the merger, the Onyx Blue had to go. A newcenter striping arrangement was made standard in 1939 withthinner stripes, all in Flat Aluminum.The MTH PT tank is striped in white. While I could probablylet that one go with just a little comment, the striping arrangementis certainly atypical, if not incorrect. The center stripeswere very thin on the prototype, about half the thickness ofthe two outside stripes. Otherwise, the paint is very nicely andevenly applied throughout.The PT TankIf you’re neurotic about details and reading this section,then you’ll probably want to deal a blow to the details on thetank. The grabs, ladders, and railings are a bit heavy for mytastes. There are these lovely air lines and pipes for the ATSsystem that delicately flow along the lower edge of the tank,supported by these huge pipe supports that I also found abit disconcerting. Take off the piping, thin down the teeth ormake some new brass piping supports, and (while opportunitypresents itself) redo the piping following a photo or two toarrange it correctly. Toss an ATS shoe on the truck, and a boxon the tender deck.While the piping supports are huge, the little tiny bumps thatrepresent the overflow pipes are fodder for the grinder as well.Knock ‘em off and replace them with some overflows madefrom brass tubing or styrene. A styrene or sheet brass splashshieldin the rear and a steam line coupling will help bring thetender up, as well.Shrouding on the Locomotive, vs. ChronologyVery soon after entering service in 1938, it was discoveredthat there wasn’t enough airflow around the pilot-mounted aircompressors, which were almost totally encapsulated by thepilot shrouding. The shrouding was trimmed back from thesides of the pilot to prevent the compressors from overheating.That change isn’t reflected in the model, making the locomotiveinappropriate for any later configurations beyond “as-built”.Also, by the time that the PT4 tanks were applied, the sheetmetal over the power-reverse and air tanks had been bobbedback, and the shrouding sheets over the ashpans had beenremoved. These sheets were hinged to be swung up and clearwhen the ashpans were being cleaned. Being an impedimentto quick servicing, they were removed during the course ofWWII and were gone by the time the PT-4 appeared. I couldhave gone with the original firebox shrouds on a PT-1 equippedHudson, however.I suspect that MTH chose not to change the basic casting ofthe locomotive to keep costs down, however they would havebeen better served, fidelity-wise, to have stuck with the originaltank or a PT-1. Also, they would have been better served toconfigure the dies originally to the second pilot-shroud arrangement,making the locomotive appropriate to everything fromthe original tank/blue stripe configuration through the PT-1/silverstripe configuration.56 • O Scale Trains - Sept/Oct ’06