PROTO 2OOO Heritage Steam Collection USRA 0-8-0 w/Sound & DCC - Powered -- Louisville & Nashville #2118

By 1917, the arrival of larger and much heavier freight cars had pushed most 0-6-0 designs to their limits. Realizing that railroads needed bigger and more powerful switchers to handle these modern cars, the United States Railway Administration developed plans for an all-new 0-8-0. Up-to-date in all respects, these big switchers were the equals in power of many road freight locomotives from just a few years earlier! Unlike some USRA designs, the 0-8-0 was well liked by the railroads that received it; 175 were completed before government control ended in 1920. But the 0-8-0's ultimate success came in the years that followed as the USRA design was eventually copied by 35 different roads. In fact, the last new steam locos built in the US were a series of 0-8-0s, constructed by the N&W in 1951-53 that followed the general outline of the decades-old USRA design! * Factory-Installed Sound & DCC * Now with Loco & Tender Electrical