North Pacific Coast No. 21

Let’s turn back the clock to 1901 to see a unique, vintage steam locomotive working on the North Pacific Coast Railroad. This unique locomotive was called the North Pacific Coast Railroad No. 21 cab-forward steam locomotive. The set consists of the 4-4-0 cab-forward locomotive and tender, an optional stand to put the engine on display, and the crew with tools to maintain the locomotive.

When NPCRR 4-4-0 locomotive no. 5 wrecked in 1897, an excellent railroad employee by the name of Bill Thomas came up with an experimental steam locomotive using NPCRR No. 5 and redesigned it with a cab at the front and the smoke box facing backward, making it one of the first cab-forwards ever created in railroading history. The different-looking locomotive was dubbed “The Freak” because of its unusual, but unique appearance in design. The locomotive ran the line on the North Pacific Coast until it retired from the railroad in 1905 and was scrapped that year. In the LEGO model, the locomotive was made using different methods to design a unique steam locomotive with important details.

This model was created using Studio 2.0. The locomotive is 474 pieces, the tender is 348 pieces. The crew and tools are 33 for a total of 855 pieces. The optional display stand is 355 pieces bringing the grand total of 1210 pieces. The difficult challenge for this model is the sloping boiler and where to put the boiler. I figured out the challenge by angling the boiler with the smoke box facing down.

I did this 1210-piece project because I always love making steam locomotives out of LEGO pieces, and I am a huge fan of LEGO. This project will inspire steam enthusiasts and LEGO fans young and old from the glory days of steam.

The North Pacific Coast Railroad No. 21 cab-forward steam locomotive would be a great set because I would believe that historians and fans of LEGO, North Pacific Coast Railroad, steam locomotives, and trains would get the inspiration of using their creative imaginations to think up a good way to spend a train trip in the 1900s to 1905.