Streamlined 4-4-2 Steam Locomotive with Tender

“Hiawatha” – Milwaukee Road

 Aerodynamically  designed “Atlantic” with tender, for use on the express trains routes "Milwaukee Road" North-American – Impressive haulage power – working front headlight – worm  transmission on oil bathed ball bearings – The tender is finely detailed with the emblem of the rail company – Available only in the following original colours: silver and orange, orange , brown and black.

Length  cm. 33

Produced by Rivarossi from 1948 to 1954

In the livery: black unlettered,  silver and orange - Milwaukee Road

The Hiawatha Locomotive

(by Gianni Carrara)

One of the first locomotives produced by Rivarossi, the ones that have survived  corrosion and metal fatigue, have now reached high prices amongst collectors. Rivarossi also produced a baggage carriage and a passenger carriage to make up a realistic composition for this Locomotive by simply colouring the FS carriages of the “Blue train” in orange.

Notes on the prototype

In Longfellow’s novel, Hiawatha was a great Indian so fast that he could over run his own arrow in flight. The Company Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (The Milwaukee Road) picked this name in 1935 for a range of trains which should reach for the first time the 100 miles an hour. The first two of these trains were ( another two were added to the in 1936/37)  mounted with an impressive aerodynamic streamlining bodywork with a wheel arrangement of  4-4-2 (Atlantic).  To be exact the name Hiawatha  was assigned to the actual train composition, and not to the individual hauling locomotive, thus other important  train compositions were given this name, even though hauled by other Locomotives. The Locomotives were known as “Class A”  the letter A was painted of the side of the cabin. The 4 class A were flanked but not withdrawn from service  by six class F-7s with wheel arrangement  4-6-4. These too were reproduced by Rivarossi . The history of this Locomotive ended in 1951, after years of honourable service, showing reliability and high performance.

The Rivarossi production.

Considering the period of production of this model of Rivarossi showed a notable resemblance to the actual Locomotive prototype, both in the paint scheme , and it’s construction. The letter A with relative number (from 1 to 4) is missing

From the sides of the cabin, and on the front of the Loco instead of the double R logo, there should have been the number of the locomotive.

The winged emblem in steel colour was without the red bordering lines which is present on the model.

From the construction point of view, the main inconsistency was the front tender truck which actually had three axles.

The model in all black livery was not referred to an actually produced locomotive.