BLI 6960 - HO Scale - Class A-3 4-8-4 - Sound and DCC - Paragon4(TM) Brass Hybrid -- Northern Pacific #2661 (Pre-1947; black, graphite)

This HO Scale Northern Pacific Class A-3 or Spokane, Portland & Seattle Class E-1 4-8-4 from Broadway Limited is a model of some of the most popular 4-8-4's ever built. By the 1920s the NP needed bigger passenger locomotives. With the help of the American Locomotive Company's design engineers, NP designed a new steam locomotive with a massive firebox that had a 115 square foot grate area supported by a four wheel trailing truck. It was the first locomotive with a 4-8-4 wheel arrangement. Alco delivered the first of 12 of these new locomotives in December of 1926, with the balance arriving early in 1927. Designated Class A, and assigned road numbers 2600 through 2611, they had 73" drivers, 28 x 30" cylinders, a boiler pressure of 210 psi, a tractive effort of 57,500 lbs and weighed 426,000 pounds. Later, the boiler pressure was raised to 240psi which increased the tractive effort to 65,700 pounds. These were the first of this new wheel arrangement and thus were to be the namesake, with the name NP selected which was very quickly shortened to just Northern. In 1938, The NP took delivery of eight Class A-3s (road numbers 2660 through 2667), and at the sample time three more were delivered to the SP&S. The specifications for these locomotives were identical to the Class A-2 except that each weighed 2,400 pounds more. The SP&S locomotives were designated Class E-1 and were mostly identical except all three were oil burners. There are no surviving NP 4-8-4s, and SP&S #700 is the surviving Class E-1 locomotive.
 
This detailed HO Scale 4-8-4 features full Paragon4 sound and DCC for realistic sound and motor control complete with back EMF for smooth slow speeds. The Paragon4 sound system works with all Broadway Limited Rolling Thunder(TM) advanced sound systems. Other features include a heavy die cast body and chassis; smooth-running drive, applied details; coal or oil tender as appropriate, directional warm white LED lighting and magnetic knuckle couplers. The Class A-3/Class E-1 4-8-4 can be operated on all DCC systems as well as on standard DC railroads (with limited sound functionality). This model has wheels profiled to operate on Code 70 and larger rail and curves of 18" radius or larger are recommended.