Part 1 – set-up, paint, detail parts, lighting, sounds and smoke
By: Dave Hikel
Well, it took nearly two years, but MTH has now delivered their first HO locomotives. What follows is a review of item #80-3101-1, which is the early pre-war model.
SET-UP
The locomotive and tender are clipped together by inserting the drawbar into a pivoting socket in the tender. The drawbar contains two electrical conductors on a piece of printed circuit board encased in black plastic. The electrical connection between the locomotive and tender is created when these conductors in the drawbar mate with two metal tabs on the tender pivot. Getting the two to clip together is not difficult, and a good description of how best to do this (with pictures) is included in the owner’s manual.
The locomotive can be run on DC, DCC, or MTH’s own DCS command control system, which uses DC current. Throughout this review I will try to make it clear how various features can be activated using each of these three systems.
PAINT
The paint finish is a smooth laying satin black with an oxide red cab roof and tender deck and c
Thanks for your review of the MTH K4 as many of us have not seen this model, including myself. I have a question about the cab roof color. The official PRR standard color for the cab was an oxide red that was a flat type of paint, and I noticed you said it was tuscan. Tuscan is much deeper in color and is usually not flat, but is glossy and would not look correct at least to me.
It sounds very interesting.
Thanks again.
The paint finish is a smooth laying satin black with tuscan red cab roof and tender deck and charcoal gray smoke box and fire box below the running boards. The tender and the cab feature white and gold pin striping. The drive wheels and pilot wheels also feature gold striping. All paint edges and striping are clean and crisp. There are three builder’s plates: one on each side of the smoke box and one on the back of the tender. The lettering on the builder’s plates, as well as additional lettering on the pilot, are all crisp and legible (with a magnifying glass).
Ok, so I’m no poet. I wish I could just post audio clips. In the mean time, how would you discribe the extra couple clangs a bell makes after someone quits pulling it’s cord?[:)]
Your discription of the color as oxide red is more correct (I just edited my first post to reflect this). From the picrues I have seen of K4’s in service the color looks correct, but the finish on the model is a satin, not gloss.
Thanks Dave. I will look forward to Part II of the testing when you post it.
The top speed in DC mode was given as 36 mph by the MR review. Is that correct on the production model that you have? The speed was using the standard 0 to 16Volts DC.
Thanks for the update on the model. I’m really surprised that you didn’t talk about the compatibility with reverse loops. Have you tried to run the model through one using DCS yet? I’m assuming when using DCC the model would have no problem with them as DCC reverse loops all work the same way with any DCC decoder.
Also, did MTH address the direction/polarity issue that plagues the large scale 2-rail stuff?
The direction/polarity issue you referred to is with the ProtoSound 2 used in # 1 scale. I was told the ProtoSound 3 used by the MTH HO model does solve this problem or it would not work in reverse loops if I remember the problem correctly. My engines have to be placed on the track in a certain direction to be recognized by the controller. They will not run unless they are placed that way only. So much for prototype operations.
I also was told by MTH my Protosound 2 would not operate this model. It seems like the software can be upgraded to use Protosound 3, but then it might not work with the # 1 scale…
An excellent review so far of the MTH K4. [tup][tup] Very in depth.
Now, are you sure that you cannot operate the Passenger Announcement PFS sequence without DCC or DCS? In ProtoSound 2.0, it is possible to operate an PFS with a specific sequence of buttons. I believe it was Bell-Whistle-Whistle…But I haven’t run any O gauge MTH in quite a while so I may be mistaken. If a BLI Sidekick II can operate the whistle and bell, it may also be able to operate the PFS.
I’ll cover a lot of details on operations in part II. I’m hoping to run on a club layout with DCC tomorrow night.
But, since you ask, here are few preview points:
Running in DC at 16.0 volts I clocked a speed of 82 smph, but at 12.0 volts it’s only 20 smph. So those of us with 12 transformers will not be happy.
The polarity issues with DCS have been solved. When polarity changes in a block the engine dosen’t care, you can still run in DCS. MTH has also included a really cool feature for sudden polarity changes in DC operations, but I’ll get into that later.
Running the K4 with Protosound 3 dosen’t require any software upgrades to the DCS handheld or Track Interface Unit. You can still operate Protosound 2 engines at the same time. The PS3 engines have different software for their own hardware, but they work just the same with the DCS equipment.
As for activating PFA (passenger/freight annoucement) in DC, it may be possible, but I haven’t figured out how to do it yet. If I figure it out I’ll be sure to include that in part II.
Runs great, sounds are top rate and the detail is as advertised. The only problem is trying to program a 4 digit address. I am using a Digitrax Super Chief, 5 amp, DT 400 controller and PowerPax on the program track. The CV 29 value supposedly are revised automatically (?). I tried the Pg mode and Pd mode, neither will program the new 4 degit address.
Any ideas, has anyone tried to change the address to 4 digits sucessfully.
Manually program CV29 to use the 4-digit address. The problem is generally the decoder is not ready to receive the CV29 command by the time the Yes/No prompt times out, so that program commadn is missed. The values are almost certainly set in CV17 and CV18, it’s just that CV29 is still set to use the 2-digit address.
I do it manually by exiting programming mode (paged) once I have hit “enter” to input the extended address. I then re-enter programming mode, but in Ops, and program CV 29 to a value of 38. In my QSI-equipped locos, they will not respond at first. When I exit programming after entering 38, I must then dial in the new address on one of the encoders, click, and the loco will come to life.
As I mention in part 2 of my review on the MTH K-4, the locomotive cannot be programmed on a programming track because the decoader needs more power than most programming tracks can provide. So to set the locomotive for 4 digit addressing you must program on the main and enter the following values in each CV:
CV 17 = upper two digits of the four digit address
CV 18 = lower two digits of the four digit address
CV 29 = enter 32 or 34 (34 will give you 28/128 throttle steps as well as the long address)