Builder: Nick Dombi
Region: Americas
Category entered:
Year entered: 2022
Brand of building bricks used:
LEGO
Since 2026, the Brick Train Awards have accepted models created with other LEGO®-compatible construction brick systems.
About Nickel Plate Road Composite Gondola 70130 by Nick Dombi
The Nickel Plate Road’s 1923 Acquisition Plan saw the construction of 500 composite gondolas in a world where all-steel freight cars were the hot new item. The high cost of steel deterred the growing railroad from an all-steel gondola, opting instead to use wooden sides and floors on an all steel frame built by the Standard Steel Car Company. The gondolas quietly entered service, and were used in freight service through the 1960s, when the Nickel Plate Road became the Norfolk & Western. Reclassified as G34s, the gondolas lasted until 1984 on the N&W in work train service, all still lettered for the Nickel Plate Road. The sole survivor of the class is 70130, which was donated to the Mad River & Nickel Plate Road Railroad Museum in Bellevue, Ohio. This accurately-scaled build features the correct New York Air Brake Triple K Valve and brake rigging on the underframe. The unlettered state of the car reflects how it currently looks at the museum as it waits for a fresh set of stencils to be applied.
To see a video talking about the model in greater detail, click here: https://youtu.be/1lBEXZPMsHY