| With
the goal of developing more powerful motive power for express passenger
service, the Pennsylvania Railroad introduced the class T1 Duplex
4-4-4-4 in 1942 with two prototype locomotives, and followed in
1945-1946 with 50 production models. Built with striking streamlining
designed by Raymond Loewy, the T1 engines were large, powerful,
and fast!
The T1's
were duplex locomotives - this means they had two sets of drivers,
each with its own pair of cylinders and rods. However, the T1s
were not articulated locomotives, but used one rigid frame. With
this design, the cylinders could be smaller and the weight of
side rods and main rods could be reduced. This duplex design with
lighter machinery, shorter cylinder stroke, less wear and tear
due to small moving parts and the use of poppet valves allowed
the T1's to travel at extremely fast speeds. Unfortunately they
were also prone to wheelslip and maintenance issues that the Pennsy
struggled to work through - especially the fact that the poppet
valves could not withstand sustained operation at 100 mph speeds.
These problems likely could have been resolved with some modest
design changes, but the PRR, and steam in general, ran out of
time. In 1948, the PRR dieselized all of its first-class prime
trains and the T1s were downgraded to haul secondary trains. Some
were withdrawn from service in 1949, and all were retired by 1952.
In 2023,
Broadway Limited is building our third production of Pennsy T1
Duplex models, and our first production with models available
in our Stealth Series. We are building five models in traditional
DGLE paint and Pennsy lettering, one Unlettered model that will
be painted DGLE, and three models decorated in fantasy paint schemes
based on well-known PRR paint schemes. The Stealth Series models
are No-Sound / DCC-Ready models that operate on DC out of the
box, or a modeler can easily install their DCC decoder of choice.
Out of the box, front and rear lights are directional, and other
lights are always ON with track power. Additionally some lighting
functions may be missing depending on selected aftermarket decoder
the modeler installs.
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