W&LE 110

[ScaleCraft]

GP-35, SOU ancestry. Haven't even SEEN a photo of an EMD with Type B trucks in DECADES.

[Chris Webster]

There are still many SW1500s with type B trucks around, for example: Weirton Steel #306 on September 19, 2019

[bob turner]

I have a pair of SD35s with Alco trucks. Looks ok to me.

[ScaleCraft]

Couple of things. Never said it was bad. Just hadn't seen an EMD with them in decades.

Now, on EMD switchers. The ONLY one I ever saw with Blombergs was a Lionel. They probably existed, but I never saw an SW or NW with anything but AAR types or some oddity like a Flexicoil but NOT a Blomberg.

You get up into MP's, yes, but I've never seen any SW or NW with Blombergs nor photos of one, other than the official Lionel fantasy.

[sarge]

If we're going to get really neurotic about it:

Chris, those would be the "A" truck rather than the "B".

Dave, NW3 and NW5 were built with Blombergs.

[R.K. Maroon]

Thanks for the tidbit on the NW3 and NW5, Sarge. These two models had never landed on my radar screen before. Here is the Wiki page. Be sure to click on the photo of the GN unit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_NW5

It would seem somewhere out there in O-scale land somebody would have taken a GMC/All Nation NW-2 and bashed one of these together.

The general question of Blombergs on EMD switchers arose when this guy wandered into my shop off eBay:



This ugly little thing turned out to be a real prize. It sold for a near-junk price but arrived with a complete P&D drive plus a nice NCE encoder. The real prize for a doorstop fan though is that it is an Adams & Son bronze cast shell, which is why I bought it. The drive and trucks will go to a different model and the NW-2 will get the Type A trucks it should, a fuel tank, proper stacks, handrails, and a grill on the front top of the hood. I think I have already dipped off the paint, but I can't seem to find the dang thing (I was by chance looking for it just before lunch).

Jim

[ScaleCraft]

except..the NW3 and NW5's almost count as prototypes. Seven of the NW3's (all to GN) total, thirteen of the NW5's, 10 of which went to GN.
Two classes, total of 20 engines. Somebody in marketing didn't do their homework.

Even the relatively rare BL-2 had 59 units.

[DaveJfr0]

Almost every Southern GP35 (minus the last 2 built) rode on AAR Type B trucks that were taken from retired Alco RS-2 and RS-3's. Another exception were the 5 CofG GP35's that rode on the typical Blomberg truck, which were also traded in from older EMD models. To put a timeframe around this, the Southern units were all built in early 1965.

[Carey Williams]

Great find Jim on the Adams SW ....not too many of those out there .....
Cheers Carey

[bob turner]

Agree - rare. I have 3. Jim and I are cornering the market for these and PAs.