By Noel Widdifield LSOL.com Managing Editor

Author  Bio I have been a NYC fan for over 61 years and I am 62 years old.  When I was a baby in my father's arms, he would take me out in our back field to wave at an engineer who drove a NYC passenger train by our house.

I have been a NYC fan for over 61 years and I am 62 years old. When I was a baby in my father's arms, he would take me out in our back field to wave at an engineer who drove a NYC passenger train by our house. That train was the Southwestern Limited on the Big Four and it was headed in those days by Hudsons. I am not sure if they were J-3s or J-1s but they were Hudsons and still are my favorite engines to this day. These engines are well documented in Thoroughbreds, The Most Famous Class of Locomotive in the World by Alvin F. Staufer and Edward L. May. This is my favorite book among my large collection of NYC reference books.

The J1-e that USA Trains chose to model was built in 1933 at a cost of a little over $80,000. The J-1e was the fifth version of the J1 first built in 1927 to replace the K-5 Pacific that had pulled the NYC fast passenger trains for several years. The Pacifics just could not pull the number of heavyweight cars that were required by the NYC on many of its runs. There were 205 J-1s built and a total of 275 Hudsons built for the NYC. In the tests on the first J-1, 26-heavyweight passenger cars were pulled and this load totaled 1443 tons. These engines would run at 80 mph and could scoop water from trackpans at that speed.

USA Trains selected the 5343 and 5344 as their model.

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They differed somewhat in that the 5343 had roller bearings on all wheels of the engine and tender except on the engine's trailing truck while the 5344 had roller bearings on all of the engine and tender wheels. Both had Coffin feedwater heaters and Baker stokers. The 5343 was streamlined in 1934 and became the Commodore Vanderbilt to head the 20th Century Limited. The streamlining was later removed and these engines continued in service until they were scraped in 7/53 (5344) and 11/54 (5343).

I am running USA Trains' first steam engine and it is a beauty. The engine and tender measure just over 40 1/2 inches from coupler to coupler. It is 4 1/4 inches wide at the widest point on the engine and the tender is the same width. It measures 6 1/4 inches from the railhead to the top of the smokestack. The cab is 3 3/4" X 4 1/2" and the boiler is 17 3/8" long. The engine is 22 /4 inches long and the tender is 17 inches long. The only difference between the two engines is that 5343 has silver paint on the firebox and the front of the boiler while 5344 is all black.

They arrived securely packed in wooden boxes.

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and have plenty of packing material.

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It took me nearly a half hour to unpack and get them on the track. The wooden crate was packed in a large cardboard box and the whole thing must have weighed 80 pounds. The engine and tender weighs a total of nearly 40 pounds.

The Hudson is beautiful to look at and the Phoenix sound system is a delight. It sounds just like I remember them sounding fifty years ago. The engines and tender are extremely well detailed. Comparing them to the pictures in the book Thoroughbreds, I could find no differences. Comparing the dimensions to the drawings in the back of the book revealed no differences. It is a perfect model of the real thing.

The front coupler can be raised or lowered just like the real engine.

  
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The hatches on the cab can be opened and closed.

  
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The tender has a coal load that is removable.

  
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As you can see, the stoker is modeled in the tender with great detail. There are panel doors on each side of the engine for the controls. The left side contains the sound system controls

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allowing the sound to be turned on or off and the sound volume to be controlled with a toggle switch. The left side panel has the controls for the motor, lights and smoke MVC-665F.JPG. There are several brass appliances on the top of the engine including the bell.

  
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The inside of the cab has all of the dials, knobs and handles found on the real thing.

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I used one of the Hudsons to pull 7 ARISTO streamlined passenger cars and the other to pull my five new ARISTO NYC heavyweights.

  
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When I have more time, I will get out my 10 two-toned gray NYC heavyweights and see what one of the engines can pull.

I moved one of the Hudsons onto the new turntable and took several shots to see what it looked like on the turntable in front of the new roundhouse. Both of these were built in anticipation of the Hudsons.

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Finally, I included several pictures to show the detail on the engines. The engines with sound cost a little over $1700 each, but they are well worth the money. I believe they are the best steam engines available in "G" today. I never thought I would have a Hudson in "G" since only the NYC used them in great numbers, but USA Trains fulfilled my dream, and I now own two of them.

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