IHC / RIVAROSSI

 HO Scale

READY-TO_RUN 

4-6-2 " PACIFIC " Steam Engine

PREMIER GOLD Series



This is a DC POWERED LOCO

OUT - OF - PRODUCTION Locomotive

DISCONTINUED By the Manufacturer


Lettered for the:

READING


Featuring the 


" SILVER CRUSADER Letters " LOGO Paint Scheme


The unit is highly detailed

FEATURES:

More Variety for Steam- and Transition-Era Railroads

 

*  DC Version / DCC Ready for conversion

* Loco & Tender Electrical Pick-Up

* Separately Molded Consumer Applied: Worthington Feedwater Heater, Turbo Generator, Locomotive Bell

* Sprung Drivers, RP-25 Contour Wheels

* Blackened METAL Handrails and Whell Sets, Coupler Cut Levers, Grab Irons, Rods, and valve Gear.

* Separately Molded Factory Applied: Sand Dome and Feed Lines, Steam Turret, Air Compressor, Air Reservoir, Power Reverse Gear, Lubrication Reservoirs, Steam and Water Feed Lines, Nathan Low Water Alarm, Popper Valves, Elesco Feedwater Heater.

* Operating Headlights n Locomotive and Tender

* Provision for Speaker Mount

* Balanced Machined Metal Flywheel

* State of the Art Can Motors Driving Precision Helical Matched gear Transmission

* Wiring for Smoke Generator Installation on some locomotives

* 8 Pole Connector between Locomotive & Tender

* Locomotives come with NMRA 8 pin receptacle in the Tender for DCC Operation conversion.

* Improved Tractive Effort

* Weighted for Maximum Tractive Effort

* Nickel-Silver Plated RP-25Wheels

*  One-piece boilers, engine covers, cabs and tenders of pressure-cast high impact plastic.

* Steel main and side rods.

* Steel handrails and coupler release bars on both loco and tender.

* Many additional fine details.

* Easy rolling steel needle point truck axles

* Tender with separately applied Coal or Oil Bunker Style as Appropriate to Road



WHEEL CONFIGURATION:

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-6-2 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The 4-6-2 locomotive became almost globally known as a Pacific type after a New Zealand locomotive that was shipped across the Pacific Ocean.


CRUSADER HISTORY:

The Crusader was a 5 car stainless steel streamlined express train that ran on a 90.3-mile (145.3 km) route from Philadelphia's Reading Terminal to Jersey City's Communipaw Terminal, with a ferry connection to Lower Manhattan at Liberty Street. The Reading Railroad provided this service in partnership with the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), in which it was the majority owner of capital stock. Trains including the Crusader ran on Reading Railroad tracks from Reading Terminal in Philadelphia to Bound Brook, NJ, where they continued on CNJ tracks to Communipaw Terminal in Jersey City.[2] Passengers then left the train and walked aboard the ferry or boarded busses that loaded onto the ferry. Introduced in 1937, the Crusader service declined during the 1960s, and the name was ultimately dropped in 1981.


Creation

By the 1930s, the Reading Company offered hourly expresses from Reading Terminal to the Central Railroad of New Jersey's Jersey City Communipaw Terminal via the Reading's New York Branch to Bound Brook where it connected with the CNJ. In order to better compete for passenger business from Philadelphia to New York with its rival Pennsylvania Railroad and attract more riders, in 1937 the railroad introduced its new Crusader premier service. Built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, this dedicated train consisted of five stainless steel streamlined cars pulled by a stainless steel shrouded streamlined Pacific class (4-6-2) steam locomotive. The train consisted of two stainless-steel coaches, two observation cars, and a tavern-dining car. A round-end observation car was at each end, a coach adjacent, and the tavern car in the middle. With this configuration, the railroad eliminated the need to turn the entire train around at the "stub end" terminals at both Jersey City and Philadelphia. Only the locomotive had to be reversed at the completion of each trip. Each locomotive had a specially-built tender (carrying the coal and water for locomotive operation) that wrapped around the observation car directly behind it.


Naming

A contest was held to find a name for the new train, offering a $250 cash prize (equivalent to $5,299 in 2023) to the winner. The Crusader, the entry of Mr. P. W. Silzer of Plainfield, New Jersey, won the prize, selected by a committee of 29 railroad officials from among 6,086 suggestions.  The Crusader's first regular run was on December 13, 1937.  The train was scheduled to make two round trips six days a week; Sundays were reserved for maintenance work.


Decline

In the early 1950s, the streamlined steam locomotives were replaced by General Motors EMD FP7 diesel electric locomotives. Passenger business was declining for the Reading as it was for all railroads at the time. For cost saving, in 1962 the stainless steel Crusader trainset was sold to the Canadian National Railway. The Crusader then began operating with the smooth-sided cars originally made for the Reading's other upscale Philadelphia–Jersey City train, the Wall Street. By the mid-1960s, the Crusader and Wall Street were the only Reading Railroad trains operating beyond West Trenton north to Bound Brook.


In May 1967, the Aldene Plan went into effect; this closed the Jersey City Communipaw Terminal and diverted trains to Newark Penn Station, thus adding 13 minutes to the commuter going to Wall Street.  The trains could not go beyond Newark Penn Station to New York Penn Station because diesel-powered trains were not permitted in the Pennsylvania Railroad's Hudson North River Tunnels. Locomotive-hauled service soon ended and was replaced by two self propelled Budd Rail Diesel Cars. Deteriorating track and additional stops to the prior Crusader schedule caused the length of the Philadelphia-Newark trip to increase from its 90 minutes to 110 minutes.


This passenger service, like many former Reading and CNJ lines, was eventually subsidized by SEPTA and New Jersey Transit. In the early 1980s, SEPTA began cutting back its diesel-powered lines in preparation for the opening of the electric-only Philadelphia Center City Commuter Connection that tied together the former Reading Terminal and the Pennsylvania Railroads Suburban Station tracks. Through service from Philadelphia to Newark ended on July 30, 1981; SEPTA continued hourly commuter trains on its electric West Trenton Line, with a connection to a once-daily, weekday-only diesel powered West Trenton to Newark shuttle.  This service ended on December 3, 1982, when the NJ Transit shuttle made its final trip due to poor ridership and a budget deficit.  The trip served 290 daily passengers and cost $319,000 annually to run.  NJT has explored restoring the service as its own West Trenton Line.


Two of the train's original five cars survive. An observation car is in the collection of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg, Pennsylvania. The other observation car was in service as part of the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train in Washington state until 2007, and is now part of the passenger car fleet of Iowa Pacific Holdings.

Overview

The introduction of the 4-6-2 design in 1901 has been described as "a veritable milestone in locomotive progress".  On many railways worldwide, Pacific steam locomotives provided the motive power for express passenger trains throughout much of the early to mid-20th century, before either being superseded by larger types in the late 1940s and 1950s, or replaced by electric or diesel-electric locomotives during the 1950s and 1960s. Nevertheless, new Pacific designs continued to be built until the mid-1950s.

The type is generally considered to be an enlargement of the 4-4-2 Atlantic type, although its prototype had a direct relationship to the 4-6-0 Ten-wheeler and 2-6-2 Prairie, effectively being a combination of the two types.  The success of the type can be attributed to a combination of its four-wheel leading truck which provided better stability at speed than a 2-6-2 Prairie, the six driving wheels which allowed for a larger boiler and the application of more tractive effort than the earlier 4-4-2 Atlantic, and the two-wheel trailing truck, first used on the New Zealand 2-6-2 Prairie of 1885. This permitted the firebox to be located behind the high driving wheels and thereby allowed it to be both wide and deep, unlike the 4-6-0 Ten-wheeler which had either a narrow and deep firebox between the driving wheels or a wide and shallow one above.

The type is well-suited to high speed running.  The world speed record for steam traction of 126 miles per hour (203 kilometres per hour) has been held by a British Pacific locomotive, the Mallard, since 3 July 1938.

Development

The two earliest 4-6-2 locomotives, both created in the United States of America, were experimental designs which were not perpetuated. In 1887, the Lehigh Valley Railroad experimented with a 4-6-0 Ten-wheeler design with a Strong's patent firebox, a cylindrical device behind the cab which required an extension of the frame and the addition of two trailing wheels to support it. In 1889, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul Railway rebuilt a conventional 4-6-0 with trailing wheels as a means of reducing its axle load.


The first true Pacific, designed as such with a large firebox aft of the coupled wheels, was ordered in 1901 by the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) from the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NZR Chief Mechanical Engineer, Alfred Beattie, ordered thirteen new Q class locomotives with a sufficiently large Wootten firebox to efficiently burn poor grade lignite coal from eastern South Island mines. Even before they had completed the order from New Zealand, the Baldwin engineers realised the advantages of this new type, and incorporated it into standard designs for other customers. The design was soon widely adopted by designers throughout the world.


Origin of the name

There are different opinions concerning the origin of the name Pacific. The design was a natural enlargement of the existing Baldwin 4-4-2 Atlantic type, but the type name may also be in recognition of the fact that a New Zealand designer had first proposed it.  Usually, however, new wheel arrangements were named for, or named by, the railroad which first used the type in the United States. In the case of the Pacific, that was the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1902.


Global popularity

The Pacific type was used on mainline railways around the world. The railways of New Zealand and Australia were the first in the world to run large numbers of Pacific locomotives, having introduced 4-6-2 types in 1901 and 1902 respectively and operating them until the 1960s.


During the first half of the 20th century, the Pacific rapidly became the predominant passenger steam power in North America. Between 1902 and 1930, about 6,800 locomotives of the type were built by North American manufacturers for service in the United States and Canada. With exported locomotives included, about 7,300 were built in total. About 45% of these were built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) which became the main builder of the type, and 28% by Baldwin. Large numbers were also used in South America, most of which were supplied by manufacturers in the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany.




" These have been highly sought after Units "

 VERY HARD TO FIND ITEM 

 

THIS IS AN ASSEMBLED READY-TO-RUN 

STEAM LOCOMOTIVE


The item is NEW in the original box from old stock 

 

SHIPPING:

 We do combine shipping on multiple purchases.  If you do a Buy It Now the transaction requires immediate payment for each item separately. 

What you need to do is put it in the shopping cart and then when you go to checkout it will recalculate the shipping and combine the items for you. 

If you pay first I am unable to make any adjustment because ebay has then taken its fees on the shipping as well.  If you have a concern message me and I can work something out for you.

 

THIS IS AN ASSEMBLED Item

The item is NEW in the original box from old stock 

 

PERSONAL INVENTORY:

Many of these unique items are from my personal inventory which was accumulated over the years.   They are hard to part with but due to downsizing in retirement they too are looking for a good home which can appreciate and enjoy them.

STORE INVENTORY:

Having discontinued my Hobby Store and left frigid “Minne-Snow-Da” I have relocated and retired to the warmer part of the country, Down to Sunny TEXAS.   

I will be Liquidating the remaining stock. 

I will be listing items over the next year or so clearing them out.

Please see the photos we take actual photos of each item

Most of these items are New in the box removed only to take photos of them.