mth 30 1107 two tone grey challenger

[Anonymous]

[?] merry xmas to all. I just purchased a mth 30 1107 challenger. can anyone tell me what does the proto smoke system do to this engine. Is there any sound of chuffing come with this . Any thoughts about this item would be appreciated Felix

[spankybird]

HI Felixg

The protosmoke unit back in the early days was just a fan driven smoke unit. This is a one of the first articulated engines that MTH made back in 1996. I have the 30-1108-0

The last –0 means no sound. Mine had a QSI board in it and has a great whistle and bell sound. The chuff sound is more like the old Lionel ‘Sound of Steam’. As compared to today standards, it not very good.

Pull the cover off the tender and see if there is a board in it.

[Chris F]

Neither the 1107 (gray/black) nor the 1108 (all black) came with a factory -installed sound board, just a whistle, when they were released in 1996. There were some 1996 RailKing steamers with ProtoSound (0-8-0's, Dreyfus Hudson) so I've always wondered why the Challengers didn't have it.

[Anonymous]

I would like to thank you guy's for the info about this engine that i got for xmas. I'm wondering if it pays to get a proto 2 sound up grade for this engine. The engine is brand new and I have not taken it out of box yet. I paid 270. dollars for it. I think that it was a nice price to pay for it. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Felix

[spankybird]

PS2 upgrade kit is about $150.00 and installation is another $125.00 or so.

New PS2 engine like that is about $650.00 to $700.00

Looks like you got a good deal.