Bachmann - 82653 - Engine, Steam, 2-6-6-2 Mallet - Chesapeake & Ohio - 1524

Model Information: First released in 2005 and released as the USRA Mallet. Bachmann later re-used the same mechanism for a C&O H-4 model which was released in 2010 with a Vanderbilt VC12 tender. The USRA Mallets come with Rapido coupler on the tender and a dummy knuckle coupler in the front. The H-4's come with EZ-Mate couplers.

Features include:

• DCC ready (manufacturer's view...)
• 5 pole, skew-wound motor
• powered by all drivers
• amber LED headlight
• detailed cab interior
• separate detail parts, including bell, whistle, pop valves, and hand rails
• finescale driver spokes

DCC Information: The 2005 USRA Mallet is DCC-Friendly. No PCB nor plug, but some space reserved for a decoder and wires available in the vicinity.
The 2010 H-4 comes with DCC factory installed in the tender.

Prototype History: The USRA 2-6-6-2 locomotive was a Mallet, or compound articulated type, having both low-pressure and high-pressure cylinders. The smaller high-pressure cylinders powered the rear set of driving wheels, and the larger low-pressure cylinders powered the forward set of driving wheels. The USRA 2-6-6-2 articulated locomotives were direct developments of the Chesapeake & Ohio class H-2 and H-4 series. This type of locomotive was sometimes referred to as a Mallet Mogul.
150 H-4s were built at Schenectady and Richmond between 1912 and 1918 for the C&O. Individual H-4 batches had adhesion weights ranging from 358,000 to 364,900 lb.
During 1919 and 1920 the C&O received batches of its Class H-5's and Class H-6's becoming the last new compounds to arrive on the railroad for nearly 30 years. The locomotives were numbered 1520-1539 (H-5) and 1475-1519 (H-6).

From Wikipedia
Read more on american-rails.com about the C&O 2-6-6-2's

Road Name History: The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (reporting marks C&O, CO) was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond to the Ohio River by 1873, where the railroad town (and later city) of Huntington, West Virginia was named for him.

Tapping the coal reserves of West Virginia, the C&O's Peninsula Extension to new coal piers on the harbor of Hampton Roads resulted in the creation of the new City of Newport News. Coal revenues also led the forging of a rail link to the Midwest, eventually reaching Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo in Ohio and Chicago, Illinois.

By the early 1960s the C&O was headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. In 1972, under the leadership of Cyrus Eaton, it became part of the Chessie System, along with the Baltimore and Ohio and Western Maryland Railway. The Chessie System was later combined with the Seaboard Coast Line and Louisville and Nashville, both the primary components of the Family Lines System, to become a key portion of CSX Transportation (CSXT) in the 1980s. A substantial portion of Conrail was added in 1999.

C&O's passenger services ended in 1971 with the formation of Amtrak. Today Amtrak's tri-weekly Cardinal passenger train follows the historic and scenic route of the C&O through the New River Gorge in one of the more rugged sections of the Mountain State. The rails of the former C&O also continue to transport intermodal and freight traffic, as well as West Virginia bituminous coal east to Hampton Roads and west to the Great Lakes as part of CSXT, a Fortune 500 company which was one of seven Class I railroads operating in North America at the beginning of the 21st century.

At the end of 1970 C&O operated 5067 miles of road on 10219 miles of track, not including WM or B&O and its subsidiaries.

Read more on Wikipedia.

Brand/Importer Information: Bachmann Industries (Bachmann Brothers, Inc.) is a Bermuda registered Chinese owned company, globally headquartered in Hong Kong; specializing in model railroading.

Founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the home of its North American headquarters, Bachmann is today part of the Kader group, who model products are made at a Chinese Government joint-venture plant in Dongguan, China. Bachmann's brand is the largest seller, in terms of volume, of model trains in the world. Bachmann primarily specializes in entry level train sets, and premium offerings in many scales. The Spectrum line is the high quality, model railroad product line, offered in N, HO, Large Scale, On30, and Williams O gauge all aimed for the hobbyist market. Bachmann is the producer of the famous railroad village product line known as "Plasticville." The turnover for Bachmann model trains for the year ended 31 December 2006 was approximately $46.87 million, a slight increase of 3.36% as compared to 2005.