MTH Premier Shay W/ Whistle Steam and Skeleton Log Cars Review

The MTH Premier Line Skeleton Log cars were announced along with the Premier Line Shays; as Shays were often used in logging service. The log cars came in several road names, and were offered in 6 car sets; The details on these cars are not bad, but certainly showing the age of their tooling. Now, the reason I have for discussing these cars: The couplers. On several of my cars, the couples do not open, or only open with such force it derails the truck before you have the coupler open, while others open smoothly with a light tap on the release button. Normally MTH rolling stock has superb coupler quality in all of my experience, so this is very odd, and worth noting in my opinion, as it can make using these cars a bit of a troublesome experience.
Now, moving on to the main attraction, the Shay. First off, these are expensive pieces, with these 3-truck versions retailing at $1350, and the 4-truck versions retailing for $1400.
You’ll notice that I have my shay pushing a string of coal hoppers; as I said, often times shays were used in logging service; But not all. The model we have here is Western Maryland Shay No. 6, the last Shay built, and used by the Western Maryland Railway for moving coal, not logs.
(Re-upload with corrected color space settings)

[@johnandrus3901]

Nice. It is a nice looking locomotive, for sure. It's good to point out the flaws in the sound system and other problems associated with MTH and Lionel. I don't have TMCC or DCS, as I run conventional, with post-war and MPC era equipment, so it's mostly the old style smoke and whistle. I do have an MTH Rail King Southern Ps-4 Pacific that heads my AMT Southern Crescent set. I doubt that most people would notice the difference in chuffs on the Shay, as it would just be interesting to hear the sound of the engine running. The difference in scheme is only noticeable if you model a certain era. An excellent video, as always.

[@dynamoscale]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed.

[@Mr.Funk92]

This is the kind of reviews we need more of. Both the good and bad. Not just kissing up like Lionel reviewers.

[@dynamoscale]

Thank you.