The Pennsy Steam (or lack thereof) Rant

The Minitrix K4 Pacific is one of only a handful of Pennsylvania steam locomotives to be produced in N Scale.

Not to kick a dead iron horse, but after a frustrating night of trying to get my K4 Pacific running right and failing, I've got to get this off my chest. One of the most frustrating things I've run up against in modeling the Pennsylvania railroad is the dearth of steam locomotives in N Scale. Unless you want to pay a king's ransom for brass models you have exactly five options: The Minitrix K4 4-6-2, B6 0-6-0 and 2-10-0, the Bachmann 0-4-0 and the super-rare Black River Models E6 4-4-2. With the exception of the E6, none of the above are particularly good runners and require extensive modification.

The lack of PRR steam has always been baffling to me. There are tons of models PRR steamers available in HO and O scales and they sell well. Even the above-mentioned Minitrix models command premium prices on eBay!

Some will tell you that K4s and  other Pennsy locomotives are unique one railroad and the wouldn't appeal to enough customers to mass produce. Well guess what, the same can be said for Union Pacific "Big Boys" and "Challengers," Norfolk and Western J 4-8-4s and the Southern Pacific "Daylight." They were all mass produced in N Scale and sold well.

Okay, maybe this was a longer rant than it needed to be. But I do believe that any manufacturer who makes a K4 in N scale will have a smash hit.