First announced in 1958, it had many bugs in the drive. Finally released in 1961, it followed their unique 0-4-2 Lil' Monster and preceded their 0-6-0 USRA switcher...for four short years, they were the only three steam locomotives Athearn ever offered until the Genesis line in the late 1990s.
Highly desirable to Athearn collectors, I picked this one up as an unidentified model on an inner hunch that it was a Mantua Pacific, only to be pleasantly surprised by what it actually was upon further investigation...
My first clue was found on its arrival...the tender wheelsets are a spot on match to the popular Hi-F drive Budd RDC rail cars that Athearn had out at the time...
Equally fascinating were the all plastic drivers, pilot and trailing truck wheelsets---all power pickup is thru the tender...
All in all an exceptional catch that will keep me busy tuning up this winter...
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