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I did have a 2-8-8-2 Mallet, Norfolk & Western. I bot it in June of 99 from Modelexpo of Hollywood Florida who at the time(no more) had the distribution franchise. Walthers of Milwaukee is to assume full distribution/sales/parts.Go to the walthers site, www.walthers.com,click on product news, then click on Walthers reaches agreement with Rivarossi. I paid $178.00 including shipping and they will probably go for a premium over that when & if you see them advertised. As far as lublication, DON'T OVER DO-DO IT SPARINGLY. Check out your local hobby shop if avaivable for recommended lubes/grease. In as far as the clean wheels, I would dampen a thin rag(T-Shirt) with rubbing alcohol and place the loco on the live track and place the loco down on the dampen rag and let the driver wheels spin. You will have to clean the front/rear pilot contact wheels probably with a saturated Q-Tip. I can send you the Rivarossi sheet that came with my unit, but it won't tell you much. Here's a recap of it. The "Norfolk & Western built its last class Y6b 2-8-8-2 Mallets in 1952 to work the coal drags over the southern Appalachians." "Among the various types of articulated Mallet locomotives, two of the most famous were the Y6b of the Norfolk and Western and the EL-5 of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Both were built by Baldwin locomotive works at Roanoke Va. These locomotives derive from Baldwin's early types built between 1918 to 1920, for the United States Railway Administration, U.S.R.A.). These locomotives worked on the "steam compound" system, that is, the high pressure rear cylinders exhausted into the low pressure forward cylinders, so the steam was used twice. Although this system was very efficient when running, the exhaust from the rear cylinders was not enough to power the front cylinders from a dead stop. Steam was fed into the forward cylinders via the generator feeds through a special low pressure reducing valve. This inovative system was originally conceived by a Belgian, Anatole Mallet, who patented it and used it for the first time in France in 1885. Henceforth all articulated locomotives equipped with this compound system were referred to as "Mallets." There were many changes after the early types, and the more recent Y6b's were made around 1945. Theese locomotives, real giants in railway terms, were used until quite recently for hauling heavy freight trains on the Virginia lines connecting the Norfolk port. A single locomotive could haul a train of more than 100 cars over the difficult terrain of that area...This tells you something and I'm sure you will receive other responses. Happy railroading.
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