bricknerd
Great Northern EMD NW3 in LEGO (1 of 4)
My Great Northern EMD NW3, finally done in real bricks!
The NW3 was EMD's first attempt at a road switcher, launched in 1939. The concept was simple: they took the hood of a NW2 and mounted it on a stretched frame, gave it Blomberg B road trucks, a bigger fuel tank, a boiler under the wide hood section, and a much larger cab, but kept the switcher-derived end cab arrangement. The engine remained unchanged, too: a V12 567 rated at 1000hp
Soon after, EMD gave up this concept and the successor NW5 adopted the now-standard arrangement with a off-center cab between short and long hoods that ALCO had brought up with its RS-1.
Only seven NW3s were built, numbered 5400 through 5406; all went to the GN, most of them being traded-in to EMD in the 60s. There used to be one NW3 still in service back when I started my project, but sadly it got scrapped by the end of 2018 after almost 80 years of duty. There’s now one sole surviving NW3; it’s on static display in Whitefish, MT.
Some remarks on the model:
- The first LDD version dates back to March 2016, so with all the ons and offs it took me more than three years to finalize it.
- The model is built of about 885 parts, which is about 120 parts less compared to its NW5 sister model. The main reason is the spartan color scheme compared to the Emperor Builder scheme, which let me use panels and large bricks instead of stacks of plates for stripes.
- The detailed interiors of both the engine hood and the cab probably wouldn’t have been possible if I’d had to squeeze in a battery box. For a project like this, the 9V system is still the best choice*
- MOD WARNING: the motor side frames got the minifig head-shaped part cut off to give room for the Blomberg swing bolster.
Special thanks go to Andy from OKBrickWorks for taking care of the stickers — I’m not good at this, and without his excellent work, the locomotive would most certainly be plain black :-)
Finally, many thanks to all of you for following the journey, and for all your comments and suggestions — please keep them coming!
—
(*) At one point during the design process I had thought about modding one of my 9V motors to get a PFx Brick in the power loop, plus loudspeaker and LED lights. That’s not off the table, Michael — might be a mid term evolution path!
Great Northern EMD NW3 in LEGO (1 of 4)
My Great Northern EMD NW3, finally done in real bricks!
The NW3 was EMD's first attempt at a road switcher, launched in 1939. The concept was simple: they took the hood of a NW2 and mounted it on a stretched frame, gave it Blomberg B road trucks, a bigger fuel tank, a boiler under the wide hood section, and a much larger cab, but kept the switcher-derived end cab arrangement. The engine remained unchanged, too: a V12 567 rated at 1000hp
Soon after, EMD gave up this concept and the successor NW5 adopted the now-standard arrangement with a off-center cab between short and long hoods that ALCO had brought up with its RS-1.
Only seven NW3s were built, numbered 5400 through 5406; all went to the GN, most of them being traded-in to EMD in the 60s. There used to be one NW3 still in service back when I started my project, but sadly it got scrapped by the end of 2018 after almost 80 years of duty. There’s now one sole surviving NW3; it’s on static display in Whitefish, MT.
Some remarks on the model:
- The first LDD version dates back to March 2016, so with all the ons and offs it took me more than three years to finalize it.
- The model is built of about 885 parts, which is about 120 parts less compared to its NW5 sister model. The main reason is the spartan color scheme compared to the Emperor Builder scheme, which let me use panels and large bricks instead of stacks of plates for stripes.
- The detailed interiors of both the engine hood and the cab probably wouldn’t have been possible if I’d had to squeeze in a battery box. For a project like this, the 9V system is still the best choice*
- MOD WARNING: the motor side frames got the minifig head-shaped part cut off to give room for the Blomberg swing bolster.
Special thanks go to Andy from OKBrickWorks for taking care of the stickers — I’m not good at this, and without his excellent work, the locomotive would most certainly be plain black :-)
Finally, many thanks to all of you for following the journey, and for all your comments and suggestions — please keep them coming!
—
(*) At one point during the design process I had thought about modding one of my 9V motors to get a PFx Brick in the power loop, plus loudspeaker and LED lights. That’s not off the table, Michael — might be a mid term evolution path!