The H10 was the last and largest in a line of Pennsy Consolidations that stretched back to 1875. Nearly 500 H10's were constructed by Alco, Baldwin, and Lima and the railroad's own shops, represented Pennsy's premier fast freight power in the era just before World War I. With a good engine crew, an H10 could hustle about 50 cars along level track, or considerably more cars in drag service hauling coal or iron ore.
When the H10 engines were constructed, the Pennsy was still divided into Lines West - all of its affiliated railroads west of Pittsburgh - and Lines East. The H10s was strictly a Lines West phenomenon, built from a standard boiler common to the H8, H9, and H10 classes, but possessing the largest cylinders of any Pennsy "Consol." When a 1920 reorganization abolished the division between Lines East and West, the railroad owned over three thousand 2-8-0's, a majority of them having a common boiler design. It was a measure of the Pennsylvania Railroad's conservative management that in the early 1920s, its entire front line freight fleet consisted of a wheel arrangement deemed obsolete by other railroads. By the mid- and late-1920s, however, the H10s and their older siblings were pushed into secondary and branch line service by the arrival of larger, more modern power: Mikados, Decapods, and Mountains. Many Consolidations sat out the Depression years in storage, until recalled to service by the crush of World War II traffic. From the war years though the end of steam, H10's could be found all over the Pennsy, the Long Island Railroad, and the Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Line in switching, work train, branch line, and occasionally main line service.
The H10 debuts in the M.T.H. HO lineup in 2013, featuring the level of detail you've come to expect in an M.T.H. HO steamer. Virtually all piping and boiler appliances are separate, added-on parts. Rods and valve gear have a prototypically darkened, grimy appearance, and the ProtoSound 3.0 sound and control system features an accurate Pennsy whistle. If you model any period from the Woodrow Wilson era to the Eisenhower years, there's an appropriate chore on your railroad for this rugged, muscular-looking steamer.
Did You Know? H10s No. 7688 was preserved by the Pennsy as part of its historical collection in Northumberland, PA. It resides today in the main exhibition hall of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania along with two earlier Consolidations: H3 No. 1187 (which has also appeared as a Premier line model) and an H6sb.
Outfitted with NEM 311 wheels and NEM 365 couplers, each of these engines feature an all-new version of Proto-Sound 3.0, contain a third rail sliding shoe for use with Marklin HO stud rail and can operate on AC or DC power. Like their 3.0 counterparts, Proto-Sound 3E+ locomotives feature full digital sound, speed control, 28 DCC functions, hundreds of DCS sounds and features and a command control receiver for use with Marklin DCC control systems. Unlike their 3.0 counterparts, Proto-Sound 3E+ locomotives cannot operate on standard 2-rail track. They only operate on HO (3-Rail) Stud Rail track (ie: Marklin C or K track).
