Railroading was a mature industry that was showing signs of age-fatigue by 1930. The economic disaster of the Great Depression hit all carriers with a special whammy, more so to marginal carriers that lived day-to-day even in the lush times of 1920s prosperity. The precipitous drop in revenue was intensified by new competition in the form of automobiles, buses and air travel. For the first time, railroads had to go beyond the traditional means of attracting passengers to trains that were operating at a loss, a pattern that worsened between 1931 and 1934.
Timing of events proved to be the salvation that many railroads needed. The 1930s ushered in the age of modern design, including streamlined concepts that were applied to locomotives, passenger cars and railroad stations. Leaders in the field of “railroad streamlining” were Henry Dreyfuss, Raymond Loewy and Otto Kuhler. The two former were in the greatest demand and commanded retainers that only the most financially-sound railroads could afford. Those railroads could justify purchasing new equipment that allowed designers latitude to apply every level of new design and mechanical concepts. Otto Kuhler tended to work with financially-strained railroads that sought to modernize vintage equipment, since their meager treasuries could not tolerate expenditures for new equipment. Specifically, Kuhler worked with the Baltimore & Ohio, Lehigh Valley, the Milwaukee Road, and New York, Ontario & Western and took vintage steam locomotives and 20-year-old cars and updated them with streamlined exteriors and interiors. Seaboard Air Line copied this concept as well.
That budget approach to modernization appealed to many railroads including the Chicago & North Western, a carrier that was in bitter competition with the pace-setting Zephyr trains of Burlington Route and the new Milwaukee Road Hiawatha. A stop-gap move toward the modern age in transport was achieved when the North Western took an older 4-6-2 locomotive and added a new steel shell to carry the sleek, streamlined “look”. Locomotive #1617 emerged from the shops with a bright yellow shell, trimmed with green – the line’s traditional colors. That locomotive was assigned to the Minnesota 400. By the time workers riveted the shell on that locomotive, North Western skipped further steam designs and embraced new, Electro-Motive “E” class passenger diesels for their best trains.
Now for the first time in model railroading history, Broadway Limited produced the North Western “yellow jacket” of 1930s fame. The model features:
Industry-leading Model Features:
• ALL-NEW Paragon4 Sound & Control System
• Synchronized Puffing Smoke with Chuff Sound
• Variable Puffing Smoke Intensity and timing
• Integral DCC Decoder with Back EMF for Industry Best Slow Speed Operation in DC and DCC
• Precision Drive Mechanism engineered for continuous heavy load towing and smooth slow speed operation
• 5-Pole Can Motor with Skew Wound Armature
• Handcrafted Brass Boiler, Cab, and Tender Body, and Heavy Die Cast Chassis for Increased Tractive Effort
• Premium Caliber Painting with Authentic Paint Scheme
• Prototypical Light Operation with Separately Controllable Headlight, Number Board Lights, and cab light
• Factory-installed Engineer and Fireman Figures
• Prototypically Accurate Models for 1942, 1944, and 1952 appearances
• Many Separately Applied Details such as Handrails, Grab Irons, Ladders, Piping, Cab Glass, Whistle, Brass Bell, Markers, Number boards, Air Tanks, and Many Others
• Equipped with Rubber Traction Tires for Increased Pulling Power
• Recommended Minimum Radius: 18 inches
• Accurate Prototypical Sounds for the C&NW Yellow Jacket
Something old turned new in the 1930s and new again in 2024, Locomotive #1617 wins the test of time on all counts. More than anything else, this locomotive demonstrates our commitment to you, to bring the best of the industry to you at competitive prices – flawlessly!
Frank Wrabel
Modeltrainstuff.com