Extremely rare 1 of a kind Lionel USTTC Prototype Sculpture Mold of a Lumber/Logging Steam Locomotive

From the Richard Kughn Collection

You can see the mold seam down the middle of the loco also has added gray material wear the mold didn't take and tooling marks

Unfinished prototype mold produced by lionel for United States Toy Train Company

A really different steam locomotive came off Tom's drawing board and became a reality in 1980 with release of the Eel River RR #112. It had a compact, powerful rugged look of the geared steam engine relics of old time lumbering days. From the 1880's until about 1960, three basic types of logging locomotives were used in North American forests: the Shay, the Heisler, and the Climax. USTTC'S model had a profile that was similar, although not prototypical. Let's say it looked enough like them to satisfy an average operator. Nothing exactly like it had ever been released by the large toy train companies, so it filled a gap and also appealed to those who like unusual items. The #112 ready-to-run locomotive made use of a new Lionel #8761 chassis and motor with a three-position reverse unit, working headlights front and rear, and was painted flat black with white lettering. The same outline engine was available in metallic tan with U.S. Army graphics as a #112MT to match USTTC's other military units. If you owned a Lionel SW-1 diesel chassis, you could buy a #112B locomotive body finished in black, completely decorated, and install it yourself. A #112K kit was also offered that included all body castings assembled except headlights and primed in locomotive black. Buyers of the ready to run locomotives were furnished with two of USTTC's #200 universal coupler clips, which was a small metal accessory device that facilitated mating of MPC knuckle couplers with pre-war latch-type couplers.

The last photo is an example of the final USTTC product on a lionel chassie