Garden Railways – August 2019

60 GARDEN RAILWAYS FALL 2019

PRODUCT REVIEWS Continued

hook-and-loop couplers. The scale-sized

coupler on the front of the locomotive

is non-functioning.

TO THE TEST TRACK. The GS-4

matches or is within scale inches of proto-

type drawings published the in the April

1972 issue of our sister magazine Model

Railroader. The GS-4 tipped the ware-

house shipping scale at 13.75 pounds.

With an impressive drawbar pull of 70

ounces, the 4-8-4 can haul 70 free-rolling

cars on straight and level track. That

number would likely increase if the two

traction tires (included) were installed.

A capacitor keeps the engine running

over dirty rail and dead spots for up

to 10 seconds.

The locomotive will operate on alter-

nating current (AC), direct current (DC),

DCC, and DCS. I started by testing the

GS-4 in DC using an LGB Jumbo. The

lights and sounds came on at 7.5V. The

Whistle Air horn

Marker light

Mars light

Headlight

Number plate

Uncoupling
lever

Dummy

coupler

Smoke

control

DCC/DCS

switch behind

magnet

Volume

control

locomotive started moving smoothly at

around 11V at a scale 3.5 scale mph. The

4-8-4 achieved at top speed of 79 scale

mph at 22V. The full-size GS-4s maxi-

mum speed was 110 mph.

Engine and idle sounds, brake squeal,

and the smoke unit are the only effects

available in DC. Also note that the

engine won’t move if more than 9V DC is

applied at startup. Build up the voltage

gradually when using DC.

I then tested the model with an MTH

DCS system, which gave access to the

various Proto-Sound 3.0 sound and

lighting effects and activated the Proto-

Coupler. The model ran smoothly at 1

smph, and achieved a top speed of 120

smph. The sound system is quite robust.

Several colleagues – both railfans and

non-railfans

• poked
  their heads
  in the work-
  shop to
  locate the
  source. I
  watched
  footage of
  the 1:1 scale
  no. 4449 for
  comparison,
  and the smoke unit puts out a realistic
  amount of smoke.
  Southern Pacific’s GS-4 4-8-4 steam
  locomotives were certainly some of the
  most recognizable engines of the steam
  era. MTH has done a great job capturing
  the looks, lights, and sounds of the semi-
  streamlined locomotive in 1:32 scale.


• Cody Grivno, Group Technical Editor

Remove cap

before adding

smoke fluid

Southern Pacific no. 4449 crosses Trout Creek trestle in September of 2006, on an excursion

from Portland, Ore. to Bend, Ore.

Jo

hn

Bie

hn