Review: MTH’s GS-4 and Matching Passenger Cars
Southern Pacific’s
"Daylight" passenger trains awash with vermilion red and bright orange
stripes separated by silver pinstripes are arguably the most
beautifully decorated streamlined passenger trains to every ride the
rails. SP’s famous Coast Daylight winding along California’s coastline between Los Angeles
and San Francisco must have been some sight. Among rail fans, the most
popular Daylights were those pulled by the Lima Locomotive Works 4-8-4
class GS-4 Northern locomotives
decked out in the Daylight paint scheme. SP had 28 GS-4’s on their
roster.
Today, O Gauge models of the SP GS-4 dressed in the Daylight paint
scheme are very popular among enthusiasts. So much so that both Lionel
and MTH offered the locomotive in very recent catalogs. Lionel is also
releasing a K-Line by Lionel version as well. MTH cataloged a version
of the GS-4 in the MTH 2006 Volume 2 O Gauge catalog
as part of the RailKing Imperial product line. The Imperial line is
marketed by MTH as a step above the RailKing line because Imperial locomotives
include added details that would usually be found on MTH’s more
expensive Premier products.
Click on the link below to read on
As soon as I saw the GS-4 in MTH’s 2006 V2 catalog I thought to myself "I’ve got to have one". However, I was a bit apprehensive
to order one for two reasons. First, it was my first time purchasing a
locomotive listing for $429.95 and of course I had to have a set of 4 matching passenger coaches,
which listed for $199.95. That meant I would need to shell out more
than $600 if this beauty was going to grace the rails of my small
layout ($600+ is the most I would spend to date for a single train
since the O Gauge bug bit me a few years ago). Second,
I don’t have a large layout so I had visions of the GS-4’s nose running
smack up against the rear of its 4 car consist of 60′ passneger cars as
it travelled around one of the ovals on my 4′ x 8′ layout.
Of
course, like anyone obsessed with O Gauge trains, I was able to come up
with a few "good" excuses to convince myself to make the purchase.
"I can probably get the loco and cars for less than list price (which I
did)." "MTH’s Imperial Line is supposed to be a good value for the
money because you get RailKing like prices with some Premier worthy
details (which turned out to be true) and it may be years before MTH
offers an Imperial GS-4 again." "This thing is made to run on O-31
radius curves so it can’t be all that bad running on a small layout
(not entirely true)." "It’s my 3 year old son’s absolute favorite
locomotive (he loves it in Part 4 of the I Love Toy Trains series)
so I have to get it!" So, after thoroughly fooling convincing myself
that ordering the GS-4 and matching coaches was a good idea, I placed
my order with one of my favorite trains shops, Holly Beach Trains in Wildwood, NJ.
Well, almost a year later my GS-4 and coaches finally arrived.
When I cracked open the box for the first time (isn’t that a great
feeling?) and laid eyes on my much anticipated purchase my first
thought was "it was worth the wait". The paint scheme is striking.
MTH did a fantastic job recreating the Daylight colors. The paint and
pinstripe edges are smooth, the silver smoke box is bright and
the Daylight markings and Lima builders plates are crisp. The
white pinstripe around the rim of the the driving wheels and the white
star centered in each is also nicely executed.
The locomotive comes complete with MTH’s Proto Sound 2 sound system
and DCS, puffing smoke, mounted engineer and fireman figures, constant
voltage headlights, a remote controlled proto-coupler, metal handrails, decorative horn and bell, a glowing firebox and the cab is illuminated with
an LED that is entirely too bright in my opinion. The Proto Sounds,
including the chuffing
engine, passenger station sounds, whistle and bell can be heard clearly
through the speaker mounted in the tender. The engine and tender are 21.5" long but this engine can negotiate
O-31 radius curves because the middle two driving
wheels of the 4-8-4 are false (no flanges). The false drivers don’t
affect the look of the engine but are a bit noticeable on O-31 curves.
The
die-cast metal bodied tender is nicely detailed as well. It includes
safety chains that hang from the die-cast truck sides and attach to the
body and separately applied ladders, grab irons and railings. An
operating rear head light and 2 operating red marker lights add to the tender’s
detailing. The Daylight paint scheme flows nicely from the locomotive
onto the tender and is just as crisp and clean. I did notice that the top stripe on the locomotive is just a bit out of alignment with the matching stripe on the tender. Since the GS-4 is an
oil burner there’s no simulated coal load. Instead you’ll find black
simulated wood planks covering most of the deck of the tender. All of
the hatches on the tender are cast into the tender body but are still
nicely detailed.
Once I set this beauty on the rails, my son fired it up from my MTH
Z4000 and had it on its way with whistle blowing in no time. He was
real excited to be running his favorite locomotive. The whistle is
awesome. It has a deep course note that’s a perfect match for the
4-8-4 and it seems to match the prototype (as far as I can tell from
the video footage I’ve seen of the prototype). The GS-4 with its fly
wheel motor and speed control runs as expected, very smooth at all
speeds and especially at extremely slow speeds. As is the case with
the other MTH steam engines in my collection, the smoke unit on this
engine is very strong. The room was filling with smoke after only a
few laps around the layout. I turned off the smoke shortly thereafter
because my better half doesn’t have an appreciation for the fine aroma
of O Gauge smoke. Thanks to its die-cast metal boiler, chassis and
truck sides and metal wheels and axles, the GS-4’s weight is
substantial and has no trouble pulling the four matching 60′ passenger
coaches. While this train is made to run on O-31 radius curves, and
does, the engine and cars do overhang the track quite a bit when
negotiating them. I run mine on an O-42 loop and the overhang is much
less.
The paint on the RailKing ABS bodied (plastic) streamlined passenger
cars is just as striking as on the engine. Again, the 3 striped paint
scheme flows flawlessly from the tender onto the baggage car and
continues all the way to the observation car. All paint and pinstripe
edges are smooth and crisp. The Daylight markings and the silver
Southern Pacific name and car numbers are also very clear and crisp.
The interiors are well lit and the configuration of the interiors is
different depending on the type of car. The observation car ends in a
nice rounded point with red side and rear marker lights that are
illuminated. All 4 cars also have separately applied grab irons at
various locations, the baggage car has spring loaded doors that slide
open and all cars are equipped with 4 wheel die-cast sided trucks with
fast angle metal wheels and metal axles that run very smooth. The cars
also feature die-cast metal operating couplers, rubber end-of-car
diaphragms and undercarriage details molded into the black frame. Each car measures 16" long. If a four car consist just isn’t enough, MTH also offers
4 other ABS bodied 60′ streamlined cars in the Daylight scheme
including a full length Vista Dome car, a passenger coach car and a dining car and sleeper sold as a pair.
Once I got over the initial euphoria of running the GS-4 and its
matching coaches I noticed a few things that were a bit disappointing.
1) The locomotive is equipped with MTH’s Proto Sounds 2 and the
passenger station sounds were not much different than those on the
engine included in my MTH Blue Comet starter set. The station calls
were obviously different but sounds like the conductor welcoming the
passengers and other background station noises were almost the same. I
expected them to be different. These sounds are upgradeable if you
have DCS but I don’t. 2) One of the cool lighting features on the GS-4
is the Mars headlight
which slowly blinks off and on to mimic the rocking action of a real
Mars light. MTH apparently sets the factory default for the Mars
headlight to stay on and not blink. As far as I can tell, the only way
to make it blink is through DCS, which I don’t have. 3) I wish the
passenger coaches came with passengers. The interiors of the coaches
are very nice but look barren because there are no passengers. This
may be an unrealistic request for a set of 4 coaches that have an
MSRP of $199 but I would have paid a little bit extra for an option to
have passengers mounted in my coaches. MTH should offer such an option
for their RailKing line passenger coaches or start putting passengers
in all their coaches. 4) The aformentioned misalignment of the upper stripe on the locomotive and tender and the very bright LED illuminating the cab.
Complaints aside, the bottom line is that I’m very happy with my
decision to purchase MTH’s GS-4 with the matching cars. The train
looks great, sounds great and runs great. The additional details
included on the Imperial line locomotive gave me the feeling that I
received a good value for the money. Anyone looking to add a more
detailed locomotive to their collection without breaking the bank
should consider MTH’s Imperial line.
Listen to the GS-4’s whistle by clicking the arrow on the player below or by opening the MP3 file here.
View more photos of MTH’s GS-4 and matching coaches here.
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3 Responses to “Review: MTH’s GS-4 and Matching Passenger Cars”
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on your new train.
Posted by: Michael M. | Apr 13, 2007 at 8:42 AM
Michael M, my pleasure. My son and I love this train. My next project is to improve the passenger cars by adding seated figures to them. I’ll post pictures on the blog when I’m finished.
Posted by: Dave | Apr 16, 2007 at 6:48 AM
Can you email me a picture of the cab during operation, because I really want this train (but from the 2009 V1 catalog)for Christmas and I would like to see the firebox glow lit up, and I would also like to see pictures of the headlight and MARS light,marker lights, and classification lights in action.
Thank you very much and please resopond asap (as soon as possible)
Posted by: Tommy | Nov 4, 2009 at 9:17 PM