After Mantua sold out to Model Power,now MRC, did they ever rerun this loco? Not too many lurking around these days.
The only boxes I have seen for this model are the Mantua branded ones. I don't know if it was like Proto2000 and Walthers where the Proto brand stayed around after the buyout, but I have never seen a model without Mantua branding. Model Power could have still been selling them with Mantua branding during the transition, but I have not seen any 'modern' runs of these models.
It would be nice to see a new run with brake rigging detail and for the tender versions not the old tyco looking one that they have used. It has DCC,sound and tender pick ups ,but looks like the old shell used on Mantua / tyco 0-6-0s.
I have three 2-6-6-2T’s and one 2-6-6-2 with a tender. One of the 2-6-6-2t’s is from the mid 1980’s.the other three all have DCC in them.
I bought a new, but not running 2-6-6-2 DCC sound. ( the decoder was dead) I think it is the newest release, has blackened wheels, can motor and dog bone driveshafts instead of tubes. Runs very good. I kitbashed it and managed to loose the two dog bones multiple times while building it. Finally, one dog bone vaporized somewhere in my work area and had to build a custom u joint from a kit I ordered. I really like the engine and the prototypical articulation that most non-brass engines do not have.
If you can get for a good price,the chassis works well as a kitbash starting point. I put a pacific shell on mine. If I remember right the drivers came out to be a scale 51 inches. Small for mainline , but a good logger,. mine looks similar to Sierra # 38