NW-5 build thread

[jpwisc]

I got another industry roughed into styrene for my White Pine layout. Lots of work still to do, but it’s trending the right way.
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[randgust]

So you finish the model sans railing, then build the railing, then hand-paint the railing?  Amazing!

It's pretty impossible to work behind brass handrails and grabs, so any painting and decaling under or behind handrails and grabs has to be done first.

You'll notice the sills aren't finished, pretty beat up.

Sometimes that's an advantage - I can do custom brass handrails on a lot of finished models.  On the other hand, on a custom build where the buyer wants to do his own painting, it's either a double-ship back for the rails, or the buyer is on his own.

I'm intrigued by this one on GN, you're reminded of history.  It's obvious that the handrails are painted to match into the body, the top hood rails were even 'split' so that the front half is orange and the back half is green.  That all changed with the contrasting paint regulations now in force with the FRA where any hand grabs have to be painted in a contrasting color to the body.   Not so then.  They went through a lot of extra effort to imitate the passenger scheme on a hood unit, not easy, but that includes the passenger attention to detail.

[signalmaintainer]

Looking mighty fine, even for a rough-in, Karl!

I got another industry roughed into styrene for my White Pine layout. Lots of work still to do, but it’s trending the right way.
(Attachment Link)

[randgust]

OK, well, I think I'm done, and more importantly, Tom does too.







I take my hat off to any modeler ever doing that GN Empire Builder scheme, that's one of the toughest I've ever done, mostly because of hitting the striping.

Now on to the NW3..... we found drawings in a 1966 RMC.

[Philip H]

Damn @randgust that thing is ugly perfection.

[randgust]

Damn @randgust that thing is ugly perfection.

At times, my wife has been known to say the same thing.... thanks!

That NW-5 sort of reminds me of a woman with a big nose, but outstanding taste in clothes.   Now the NW-3, that thing hasn't grown on me at all, at least not yet.   I can't imagine being in the cab WITH the steam generator, unless it was January in Montana.   If you had steam-injection air conditioning, that would be just torture.

[thomasjmdavis]

This won't be of much use for GN modelers, but for something along the same lines as the NW-3 but a tad more elegant, consider the TR-1 done for the Illinois Central.  Essentially, a cow-calf version of the NW-3, but instead of a steam generator, the extra length was used for 4 more cylinders- it housed the prime mover of an FT with 1350 HP rating.  Without the steam generator housing, the lines are much smoother.  I don't know if frame and body parts were interchangeable between the NW-3 and TR-1, but it would make sense given the make up of the NW-2, TR and TR-2.
http://www.trainweb.org/rrgifroundhouse/large/emd/DM-EMD-TR1-L.gif

[thomasjmdavis]

At times, my wife has been known to say the same thing.... thanks!

That NW-5 sort of reminds me of a woman with a big nose, but outstanding taste in clothes.   Now the NW-3, that thing hasn't grown on me at all, at least not yet.   I can't imagine being in the cab WITH the steam generator, unless it was January in Montana.   If you had steam-injection air conditioning, that would be just torture.

That was the main complaint of engineers and firemen on the steam generator equipped BL-2s on the C&EI, assigned to locals in southern Illinois and Indiana- a place where 99 degrees and 99% humidity sometimes happen simultaneously.  The steam generator was located in the short hood with the exhaust running up the center of the split windshield. 

[randgust]

We did find NW3 drawings in the November 1966 RMC, I have them, and when the time comes, I'll set up a similar "NW3 build" thread.   I can see one thing, that incredibly oddball cab is mostly scratch.   The only thing that looks normal is the front windows above the hood, and the back wall.

Got a Bachmann NW2 for inspection and was not impressed by the die detail one little bit, they left off a lot.  Still looking for a Kato shell.