Athearn - 11804 - Locomotive, Steam, 4-6-6-4 Challenger - Clinchfield - 670

Specific Item Information: This stunning reproduction of the 4-6-6-4 Challenger is the result of a focused determination to accomplish one thing: create the finest operating miniature representation of the prototype available. Giving life to all the details are authentic sounds that are channeled through a factory installed DCC and soundboard with speakers. The DCC decoder automatically senses what type of power supply is in use (conventional DC or NMRA compliant DCC) and adapts its functions. The modeler doesn’t have to do a thing. Functions and sounds available to DCC users include: Bell Whistle Water injector Air release Blower hiss Fire box door Lighting direction Coupling Brake squeal Conductor’s voice Sand release Cylinder cock/flange squeal A handheld wireless controller is included for use with conventional DC power supplies. With it, modelers can control six sound functions as well as speed and direction. The N Scale 4-6-6-4 Challenger includes a history book and instruction book for quick reference.

Model Information: This stunning reproduction of the 4-6-6-4 Challenger is the result of a focused determination to accomplish one thing: create the finest operating miniature representation of the prototype available. Giving life to all the details are authentic sounds that are channeled through a factory installed DCC and soundboard with speakers. The DCC decoder automatically senses what type of power supply is in use (conventional DC or NMRA compliant DCC) and adapts its functions. The modeler doesn't have to do a thing. The N Scale 4-6-6-4 Challenger includes a history book and instruction book for quick reference.

Key Features:

• Boiler backhead with full detailing
• Individually applied piping, valves, generators, etc.
• Correctly operating eccentric cranks
• Headlights and number boards with directional light change
• Tender light
• Five pole skewed armature motor with dual flywheels
• Pivoting front and rear engines for negotiating 11" radius curves - 15" radius recommended
• Factory installed onboard sound and DCC decoder
• Hand held remote control for DC operation
• Blackened metal wheels
• MicroTrains operating knuckle couplers installed

The model's booklet can be found here.

DCC Information: Factory equipped with DCC & Sound decoder:
- 2007 run: MRC decoder with remote control for analog operation
- from 2010 run: Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder
The 2017 run was also offered in analog, DCC-Ready, version.

Prototype History: The Union Pacific Challengers are a type of simple articulated 4-6-6-4 steam locomotive built by American Locomotive Company (Alco) for the Union Pacific Railroad. 105 of these locomotives were built between 1936 and 1943. The Challengers were nearly 122 ft (37 m) long and weighed 314 tons (284,800 kg). They operated over most of the Union Pacific system, primarily in freight service, but a few were assigned to passenger trains like the Portland Rose. The locomotives were built specifically for Union Pacific and much of the experience gained later went into the design of the "Big Boy", which the later version of the Union Pacific Challenger was redesigned after.

Read more on Wikipedia and on SteamLocomotive.com.

Road Name History: The Clinchfield Railroad (reporting mark CRR) was an operating and holding company for the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway (reporting mark CCO). The line ran from the coalfields of Virginia and Elkhorn City, Kentucky, to the textile mills of South Carolina. The 35-mile segment from Dante, Virginia, to Elkhorn City, opening up the coal lands north of Sandy Ridge Mountains and forming a connection with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway at Elkhorn City, was completed in 1915.

The Clinchfield was the last Class I railroad built in the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains. The 266-mile railroad provided access to numerous scenic wonders of the Appalachian region and is probably best known for the state-of-the-art railroad engineering techniques applied in its construction, as exemplified by the Clinchfield Loops climbing the Blue Ridge Mountains north of Marion, North Carolina.

The Clinchfield Railroad began operating the line December 1, 1924, and for many years it was leased jointly by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Louisville and Nashville Railroad. When the L&N merged with the ACL's successor, the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, effective January 1, 1983, forming the Seaboard System Railroad, the separate operating company was unnecessary and was merged into the Seaboard. The line is now owned and operated by CSX Transportation as their Blue Ridge Subdivision (Spartanburg to Erwin, Tennessee) and Kingsport Subdivision (Erwin to Elkhorn City).

On October 15, 2015 CSX Transportation announced it was closing the Erwin yard facility, with a loss of 300 jobs. All through traffic trains would cease using the Clinchfield Route. Industries around Kingsport and Johnson City, TN would still be serviced by trains coming North from Spartanburg, SC and Bostic, NC, as would the Alpha Natural Resources coal preparation facility in McClure, VA by trains coming south from Shelbiana, Ky. Norfolk Southern would still use the line from St. Paul to Frisco, VA via a trackage rights arrangement with the CSX. The line between St. Paul and McClure (19.4 miles) would be idled immediately, effectively ending the use of the Clinchfield Route as a functioning bridge route between Spartanburg and Elkhorn City. It has been reported, however, that there have been instances of equipment running between Shelbiana, Ky and Dante, Va. The last time a train crossed the entire "North End" of the Clinchfield Route (from Elkhorn to Kingsport) was for the 2015 running of the Santa Claus Special, which happened in November 2015. It remains unclear as to the future of this rail line.

Brand/Importer Information: Athearn's history began in 1938, when its founder-to-be, Irvin Athearn, started an elaborate O scale layout in his mother's house. After placing an ad selling the layout, and receiving much response to it, Irv decided that selling model railroads would be a good living. He sold train products out of his mother's house through most of the 1940s. After becoming a full-time retailer in 1946, Irv opened a separate facility in Hawthorne, California in 1948, and that same year he branched into HO scale models for the first time.

Athearn acquired the Globe Models product line and improved upon it, introducing a comprehensive array of locomotive, passenger and freight car models. Improvements included all-wheel drive and electrical contact. One innovation was the "Hi-Fi" drive mechanism, employing small rubber bands to transfer motion from the motor spindle to the axles. Another was the double-ended ring magnet motor, which permitted easy connection to all-wheel-drive assemblies. Athearn was also able to incorporate flywheels into double-ended drives.

The company produced a model of the Boston & Maine P4 class Pacific steam locomotive which incorporated a cast zinc alloy base and thermoplastic resin superstructure. It had a worm drive and all power pickup was through the bipolar trucks that carried the tender. This item was discontinued after the Wilson motor was no longer available, and was not redesigned for a more technologically advanced motor.

Athearn's car fleet included shorter-than-scale interpretations of passenger cars of Southern Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad prototypes. The company also offered a variety of scale-length freight cars with sprung and equalized trucks. The cars could be obtained in simple kit form, or ready-to-run in windowed display boxes. The comprehensive scope of the product line contributed to the popularity of HO as a model railroad scale, due to the ready availability of items and their low cost.

Irv Athearn died in 1991. New owners took control in 1994, but continued to follow Athearn's commitment to high-quality products at reasonable prices. Athearn was bought in 2004 by Horizon Hobby. Athearn was then moved from its facility in Compton to a new facility in Carson, California. In mid-2009, all remaining US production was moved to China and warehousing moved to parent Horizon Hobby. Sales and product development was relocated to a smaller facility in Long Beach, California.

Read more on Wikipedia and Athearn website.