# New (to me) C&O Turbine



## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

My good friend Don Jones knows I liket turbine locomotives and that I am slowly trying to collect scale models of all of them. Imagine when he showed up at my home with a scale PS1 C&O M1 for me I was not expecting, as a gift! I've done some favors for him but this was way too much. It is a wonderful loco, about 37 inches long overall with the tender, and runs very well in conventional. It looks good, too. The M1, nicknamed the "Sacred Cow" because of its expense and need for frequent service and adjustment, was 6,000 HP monster steam turbine, but quite pretty. INterestingly, it carried its coal inside the loco body: the tender on carried water. It was distantly related to N&W's Jawn Henry steam turbine in desing, but much, much prettier - in fact far and away the prettiest steam turbine ever made. Whether it is prettier than the big GE gas turbine GTELs made for Union Pacific, particularly the Veranda Turbine gas turbine loco, is another matter (and don't even ask . . It's not nearly as pretty as Veranda Turbine, the actress!).

Anyway, I ran it today although it will probably stay on the shelf now, alongside my Jawn Henry, PRR, and the big UP Gas Turbines I have. It is really too big for the layout, and I wanted all the trubines jsut as models, really. I love it, and thank you Don!!!
It is a very handsome locomotive.








Sticks out a bit on curves, not as much as a Big Boy does in front, but then it makes up for that by sticking out in back, too.








Still, its a big, fun loco. At idle it makes kind of a hammering recprocating sound, but when running is sounds for all the world like a big waterfall, actually. Has no whsitle, or bell, but when I hit the whistle/horn button, and get one ding of a very big bell, very loud and dynamic. Sorta cool.


----------



## BobS (Jun 18, 2015)

WOW Lee! Even on your layout, this thing is BIG! Lucky that cow didn't get killed.


----------



## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

Wow. You have a nice engine and a great friend. I was struck by the wheel arrangement. Looks like a 4-8-4-8-4.


----------



## Guest (Mar 6, 2017)

Always liked this locomotive, big and impressive.


----------



## seayakbill (Jan 16, 2016)

It is a gigantic brute, probably need 120 curves to do it justice.

Bill


----------



## walter (Jan 31, 2014)

Neat engine, love it. It also had a backwards mounted boiler. They were going to run from Washington to Cincinnati, but not one of the 3 ever made a complete trip without breaking down. Mostly coal dust and water leakage shorting out the motors.


----------



## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

What a nice friend and what an awesome loco. She is huge. If that cow had been on the other side of the track she would be a gonner.


----------



## IronManStark (Jan 15, 2017)

As a fellow C&O collector this is a amazing looking loco!! Thanks for the share & info!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Traindiesel (Sep 8, 2015)

Lee, have you run the M1 with any load behind it? I have read, and seen, that this engine does not have much pulling power despite it's size.

I also received one of these as a gift from a close friend, because his curves on his layout are too small and when he tried running it with several freight cars the wheels would spin in place ripping off the traction tires. I was told by someone on OGR that the issue is the springs in the pilot and trailing trucks, somehow not allowing the drive wheels full weight on the track. So my friend gave it to me so I could do something with it and run it on my wider curves.

I need to get more info on the spring type I need and then I plan to upgrade it to ProtoSounds 3. If you ever need traction tires for it, use the MTH diesel tires. They are what is used for the M1 as per the MTH parts guys at the York Meet and a few others I spoke with.


----------



## SantaFeJim (Sep 8, 2015)

Passenger Train Collector said:


> Always liked this locomotive, big and impressive.


I'll say it for you Brian: "Plus, it is yellow".


----------



## Bill Webb (Sep 14, 2015)

Wow Lee. This is a beautiful engine. Know that you will enjoy it.

Hats off to Don for his gift to you.


----------



## walter (Jan 31, 2014)

SantaFeJim said:


> I'll say it for you Brian: "Plus, it is yellow".


----------



## WildcatRR (Jul 28, 2013)

*C&O*

I have one and I love it. Runs real good and love the way it looks.


----------



## Marklx200 (Jun 14, 2015)

I need better friends


----------



## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

Marklx200 said:


> I need better friends


L.O.L.


----------



## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

A great looking & even better friend.


----------



## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Traindiesel said:


> . . . I have read, and seen, that this engine does not have much pulling power despite it's size.
> . . .


I haven't tried but it would not surprise me if it does not pull well. For one thing it is so very heavy and big, so it probably uses a lot of its power just moving itself, particularly bending itself around curves. Only 16 of its 28 wheels are powered - a lot of its weight is on unpowered wheels, so for all I know it could even be traction limited - a lot of weight but not enough on the driven wheels. But I'm not going to ask it to pull much, so it does not matter . . . 

While playing with it I discovered the doors over the coal bin. Very cool.


----------



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

A seriously impressive locomotive. I've wanted one ever since I did a PS/2 upgrade on one, still haven't found one at the right price.

Looks great, and it sure does hang over on the rear!


----------



## PatKn (Jul 14, 2015)

Now that's an impressive engine. Enjoy it Lee.


----------



## DennyM (Jan 3, 2016)

Marklx200 said:


> I need better friends


I was about to say that too, but I have two engines a friend loaned me without my asking.

Lee, it is a beautiful beast.:thumbsup:


----------



## Yellowstone Special (Jun 23, 2015)

A very nice gift and good photos, Lee. 

But with your penchant for long, humongous locomotives, if this keeps up, looks like you'll need a gymnasium-sized train room in which to store and run all of them.


----------



## walter (Jan 31, 2014)

Here's some random pics of the C&O M1.


----------



## Yellowstone Special (Jun 23, 2015)

Nice photos of C & O's M1. Too bad they weren't a hit.


----------



## Odyknuck (Dec 31, 2015)

Very nice.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk


----------



## Fabforrest (Aug 31, 2015)

The real thing had problems with the coal getting wet, right?


----------



## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Fabforrest said:


> The real thing had problems with the coal getting wet, right?


It had lots of problems. Lots and lots. That was probably one among them.


----------



## arkady (May 15, 2013)

That's a magnificent model, no two ways about it. But if it's too big for Lee's layout, I know there's not even a hypothetical chance it'd maneuver around my 072 curves. Glad to hear that it works well in Conventional, though.

I confess to a love for the "last ditch" experimental steam locomotives that tried and failed to stem the diesel tide. The UP steam turbine; the Q1 and Q2; the S2 turbine; the Jawn Henry...all the way to the stillborn ACE 3000. They're all fascinating.


----------



## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

arkady said:


> That's a magnificent model, no two ways about it. But if it's too big for Lee's layout, I know there's not even a hypothetical chance it'd maneuver around my 072 curves. Glad to hear that it works well in Conventional, though.
> 
> I confess to a love for the "last ditch" experimental steam locomotives that tried and failed to stem the diesel tide. The UP steam turbine; the Q1 and Q2; the S2 turbine; the Jawn Henry...all the way to the stillborn ACE 3000. They're all fascinating.


They are indeed. I agree with you 100%:thumbsup:. The big turbines fascinate me. You have to make mistakes to learn how to do it right and they provided lots of lessons. In the end, diesels won big. Looking back it seems obvious that they would, but clearly it was not as apparent without the benefit of hindsight.


----------



## Traindiesel (Sep 8, 2015)

I would hope it would run well in conventional mode since ProtoSound 1 locomotives are conventional locomotives! 

MTH also made this engine in ProtoSound 2, which has DCS command control in 2008 as part of a passenger set.


----------



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I keep my eye out for one of those as well. After I had one to upgrade for someone, I decided it was a pretty cool piece and I wanted one.


----------



## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

Traindiesel said:


> I would hope it would run well in conventional mode since ProtoSound 1 locomotives are conventional locomotives!
> 
> MTH also made this engine in ProtoSound 2, which has DCS command control in 2008 as part of a passenger set.


I guess what I was meaning was that it runs better than some other DCS and TMCC locos do in conventional. It does not jackrabbiet and has a very linear response to throttle. Some early DCS and TMCC locos are terrible when you try to run them in conventional.


----------



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Since they don't have cruise, I'm surprised it does better than a decent cruise equipped model.


----------



## Traindiesel (Sep 8, 2015)

I know what you mean. I have an early Lionel TMCC Union Pacific SD90 that runs very erratically in conventional but runs perfectly in command mode.


----------



## Lee Willis (Jan 1, 2014)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> Since they don't have cruise, I'm surprised it does better than a decent cruise equipped model.


I actually didn't notice it slowing and speeding up, probably because is was nervously watching it for bumping into things as it stuck out so far on curves. It won't get run enough that a lack of uise matters - its off the layout now and frankly I doubt I will ever run it again. Just want the models of the big turbines on my shelves - all except the Veranda turbine, etc., really too big to run on my layout.


----------



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

It's certainly a cool locomotive to put on the shelf, that's for sure. :thumbsup:


----------



## DennyM (Jan 3, 2016)

Lee Willis said:


> I actually didn't notice it slowing and speeding up, probably because is was nervously watching it for bumping into things as it stuck out so far on curves. It won't get run enough that a lack of uise matters - its off the layout now and frankly I doubt I will ever run it again. Just want the models of the big turbines on my shelves - all except the Veranda turbine, etc., really too big to run on my layout.


Lee, too bad you are so far away. I would invite you to run it on the club layout. You would have more than enough running room.


----------

