EMD E9A - Canadian National 101 aka Illinois Central Business Train

[pirzyk]

I decided I needed a second engine for my City of New Orleans Train but I didn't want to just do a second copy.  I have done several IC[G] diesel engines with different liveries in the past so that is what I deiced to do.  Canadian National bought the IC line back in 1999 and eventually they refurbished a pair of the EMD E9A engines using a modernized paint scheme, using the last IC logo (aka the deathstar logo).  It was used for several years as the CN Santa Train before being sold to Iowa Pacific holdings.  Here I present my MOC of that engine (some of you may have seen it in person at the Uke's show or BrickWorld Chicago):

The new IC-101 along with it's CoNO's twin.  Here's a close up of the deathstar logo:

Back shot:

Both engines are powered by dual LEGO train motors and are controlled by PFx Bricks.  The 101 has a 4MB version while the CoNO will be upgraded to the 16MB version when it arrives, I need the extra room to store the City of New Orleans song on that one!  I'm looking forward to running them at our next show.

Here is the reference photo I used for the build:

This leads me to a question [poll if I had enough postings ;)] for the forum, port windows or no port windows?  I am leaning towards the former as it provides a bit more interesting details but I will entertain arguments against them.  Here are side by side shots of the MOC:

[JopieK]

Here you are :) I like the version with portholes best, breaks the train a little. I like the train but couldn't you make the nose a little higher looking?

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Very nice locomotive and amazing colors!

I like the bogies too

[pirzyk]

3 hours ago, JopieK said:

Here you are :) I like the version with portholes best, breaks the train a little.  I like the train but couldn't you make the nose a little higher looking?

Thanks for the poll.  Hrm, the nose is an interesting point, I'll have to play with it a bit.

3 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

I like the bogies too

I did cheat here as the motors are only dual axle yet the Type E are triple axle bogies.  I had originally tried to powered triple axles but they ran like crap through the switches and kept derailling.  So I kept the decorative sides to hide the lack of an axle :)

Edited June 24, 2018 by pirzyk
Forgot to address the bogie comment.

[Paperinik77pk]

Very nice locomotive! I prefer it without portholes , it has a cleaner shape! I like the bogies!!!

Edited June 25, 2018 by Paperinik77pk

[zephyr1934]

Portholes all the way,  you really need to track down the prototype and fix that one (grin).

[pirzyk]

2 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

Portholes all the way,  you really need to track down the prototype and fix that one (grin).

Last I saw it was used as part of Indiana Transportation Museum's Polar Bear Express (December 2017), which puts it closer to you than to me :)

[icemorons]

Although I like the portholes, the reference image doesn't have them.   If you're going for correctness, and cleanliness, sans portholes.   If you want to break up those slab-looking sides, and don't place as much emphasis on correctness, then keep the portholes.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Although the original one hasn't potholes the moc looks better with them

[Feuer Zug]

Good looking MOC. I'm with the porthole crowd. It looks more proper and gives it a less drab side look.

[Bricked1980]

I don't know whether the portholes are the most realistic option or not but regardless of that I think I prefer the version with them. It provides some extra texturing and detail to the sides and just looks right to me.

Both versions look terrific though. 

[michaelgale]

Slick looking locomotives!  Glad to see the PFx Brick put to good use and hope it's working well for you.  The EMD 2-stroke prime mover would be a good sound profile to add to our small library of PFx Brick profiles.  When we get some time, we plan to add more pre-configured train locomotive (steam & diesel) sound profiles giving you folks prototypical sounds to match your models. In the meantime, you can at least choose from our horn, bell and other sounds to enrich operation.  Adding sound to LEGO trains is seriously fun!

[pirzyk]

8 hours ago, michaelgale said:

Slick looking locomotives!  Glad to see the PFx Brick put to good use and hope it's working well for you.  The EMD 2-stroke prime mover would be a good sound profile to add to our small library of PFx Brick profiles.  When we get some time, we plan to add more pre-configured train locomotive (steam & diesel) sound profiles giving you folks prototypical sounds to match your models. In the meantime, you can at least choose from our horn, bell and other sounds to enrich operation.  Adding sound to LEGO trains is seriously fun!

Sounds great.  I did find the initial setup of the PFx Brick was trivial.  I want to add more lighting and relabel the buttons to make it easier during shows to operate.