# My Favorite Locomotive This Week: MTH' Big Premier PRR S1



## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)




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## Guest (Jul 16, 2019)

I can understand why that locomotive is a favorite, Lee. It's ginormous but a real looker, much more attractive than a Big Boy, Challenger, Y-6, or most other articulated locomotives. 

My locomotive roster isn't that large so I don't have any true shelf queens. The two locomotives I run the least are my LC+ Erie Camelback and my conventional NYC 0-8-0. The NYC is a conventional set engine and I very rarely run conventionally. It runs at shows. It's a reliable runner with simple sounds and if something should happen to it at a show it's not a big loss. 

I'm not sure why the Erie Camelback gets very little run time. I guess I'm just not that thrilled with it and prefer other engines.


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2019)

Big and beautiful. It was also a World's Fair exhibit in New York.


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2019)

Image from the 1939 World's Fair.

View attachment 502070


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## Paul Kallus (Jan 15, 2016)

One can surely tell the PRR S1 is a Raymond Loewy design. He tended to be heavy-handed in application of streamlining. The streamlined era of the 1930s is a fascinating time with a rich history, but the S1 and K4s Torpedo don't have much appeal to me, at least enough to buy them as O-gauge models, although I grew up with my father's 1938 Lionel 1668 (minus the tender  As a child, I looked upon it as that scary-looking and heavy black locomotive that was relegated to a shelf in the garage (a GSQ = garage shelf queen), and as a result, I played more with the Marx diesel switcher at Christmas time.


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## superwarp1 (Dec 13, 2016)

The PRR had some interesting designs. Good pick for this week.


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2019)

I like big steamers and this one was both big and beautiful with the streamline look. However, history of the PRR says it was not all that successful in revenue service because of it's size and wheel configuration. 

As a model though, the PRR operational problems are behind us.


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## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

It certainly is a good looking monster of an engine.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Country Joe said:


> I'm not sure why the Erie Camelback gets very little run time. I guess I'm just not that thrilled with it and prefer other engines.


Let's be honest Country Joe. Your Camelback, just like mine, gets run less often than would otherwise be the case because it is one very ugly locomotive. No getting around it.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Hey guys. With plenty of time on my hands and thinking about the S1, I found this "race" between the S1 and a T1 on Youtube. I have no idea how precise the modeling of details in the software is but it seems realistic. Fun to watch and it drives home that steam locos basically had a one-speed transmission, with the size of the drivers being the equivalent of a car's rear-end axle ratio, affecting both top speed (the bigger the driver, the faster to top speed) and acceleration (the bigger, the slower to accelerate).

Fascinating race. I enjoyed the whole 18 minutes.


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## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

Gigantic tender for that guy, interesting info, thanks.

Bill


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2019)

Lee Willis said:


> Let's be honest Country Joe. Your Camelback, just like mine, gets run less often than would otherwise be the case because it is one very ugly locomotive. No getting around it.


Lee, I think you are right. Camelbacks are so ugly I'd swear they were given a good old country beating with the ugly stick. :laugh:


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## Krieglok (Sep 7, 2013)

Nice presentation, Lee. Thanks for posting it! 

I was just considering buying a S-1. I have a choice of the MTH PS3 or a Lionel Tmcc version. Still mulling it over. It was pretty specialized engine running only between Chicago and Pittsburgh I believe. Still a engine worth having if you are a PRR fan.

The real Pennsy S-1 was fitted with an airhorn. I don't know if it actually had a steam whistle or not. 

Tom


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

Nice Review, Lee. Hope your recovery is going well. I love the Pennsy S1. It is one of my favorite steam engines. Here is a picture of my S1 pulling a set of Pennsy Fleet of Modernism Passenger cars. I have the same engine as you do. Only difference is I bought the set that included FoM passenger cars. I also posted a picture of the S1, J1 and an Atlantic for size comparison.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Nice comparison of three great locos, Pat. The J1 was a great loco, too, and big and fast. Just goes to show how big the S1 was.


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## pennwest (Sep 21, 2015)

Krieglok said:


> Nice presentation, Lee. Thanks for posting it!
> 
> I was just considering buying a S-1. I have a choice of the MTH PS3 or a Lionel Tmcc version. Still mulling it over. It was pretty specialized engine running only between Chicago and Pittsburgh I believe. Still a engine worth having if you are a PRR fan.
> 
> ...


The prototype S1 (no hyphen in PRR locomotive classes) ran between Chicago and Crestline, OH. This section of mainline became known as "The Racetrack" and was mostly straight with no tunnels. 

The S1 was too big for any of PRR's turntables. In Chicago it turned on the balloon track outside Union Station and in Crestline they turned in on a wye, where apparently it derailed with some frequency. In order to house it, one of the end roundhouse stalls in Crestline was lengthened and a new switch and special track was laid to the rear of the new stall.

In the image of the Crestline roundhouse linked below, you can see the lengthened stall with the S1 outside of it at the lower left.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Apparently, that shot is from the heyday of railroads. 

I embedded the image in-line.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

That is cool. That is a seriously cool photo.


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## kstrains (Sep 19, 2015)

Lee, wow what a engine! Imagine the work it took to shovel coal into it! 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Dano (Aug 26, 2012)

Good one Lee. I have a small post-war collection, pretty much all shelf queens although I try to knock the rust off once a year.


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## DennyM (Jan 3, 2016)

Very cool engine. Hope your recovery is going well.


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## Krieglok (Sep 7, 2013)

Taking a cue from Lee and Pat, I picked up a MTH PS3 S1. 

It is a big, heavy locomotive for sure! The instructions recommend making sure the users layout has strong bridges and good clearances before using...lol

Tom


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## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

It's an impressive engine, Tom. Enjoy it.


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## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Krieglok said:


> Taking a cue from Lee and Pat, I picked up a MTH PS3 S1.
> 
> It is a big, heavy locomotive for sure! The instructions recommend making sure the users layout has strong bridges and good clearances before using...lol
> 
> Tom


Yeah, and make sure those tunnels are wide, too!!!


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Lee, I learned the tunnel portal lesson with the Challengers and Big Boys.  I do like the S1, and that one is in my future when I get finished and have a place to run it.


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