Builder: Matt Csenge
Region: Americas
Category entered:
Year entered: 2026
Brand of building bricks used:
LEGO
Since 2026, the Brick Train Awards have accepted models created with other LEGO®-compatible construction brick systems.
About New Haven Railroad EP-3 locomotive 358 by Matt Csenge
The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad's EP-3 class locomotives were built by GE in 1931. The locomotives, with their 2-C+C-2 wheel arrangement, were based on the successful DC electric locomotives the company built for the Cleveland Union Terminal, but incorporating the latest in AC traction technology. Like all other New Haven passenger locomotives, they featured two large AC pantographs, four DC third rail shoes (for operation over the New York Central into Grand Central Terminal), and one small DC pantograph (for the gaps in the third rail at the complex special trackwork in GCT). They included MU receptacles on the end "porches," though reportedly the only time they were ever MU'd was on some troop trains during World War II - taking photos of troop trains was strictly forbidden, so no photographs are known to exist. The fleet of 10 locomotives served reliably until their retirement in 1960, replaced by the second order of FL9s. Notably, the Pennsylvania Railroad borrowed three of these for testing when developing the replacement for the P5a locomotives - the result of the tests was the famous GG-1.
I had previously modeled EP-3 no. 358 eleven years ago in 2014 and while that model was very successful, by 2024 it was rather outdated and in need of rebuilding to more accurately model the prototype. The model is powered by two L motors.