Rapido's early model represents the N&W as built, which I'm not really interested in. The modifications made in the 1960s didn't really constitute a rebuilding, just equipping them with hollow louvered hoods over the side intakes - aka "box louvers". These make them instantly identifiable as N&W (or ex-N&W for survivors from the torch).

N&W 308-364 were all phase 1A RS11s. Excuse me for not using the Roman numerals but the lower case letters and fonts make the Roman stuff kind of silly for a web feature. The Arabic numbers were invented for a reason.. they're better. The phase 1A on the N&W are characterized by the five evenly spaced box louvers over the engine compartment, and the triple louver box over the intercooler - I think that's what it is. In the past these bits have been scratchbuilt or were made from Tiger Valley Models cast white metal parts. Rapido did an outstanding job creating these parts. They only made a couple of mistakes. The undecorated version of the N&W comes with two dynamic brake/engine compartment inserts, one plain with the screened openings, the other with the five box louvers tightly glued in place with CA cement. It comes with the screen type intercooler, and an extra pair of screen type rather than the triple louvers. I have been in contact with Rapido about obtaining the missing triple louvers and hopefully when they can squeeze in a run I will get them. In the mean time I was able to acquire some resin castings to use for the triple louvers from a friend - I won't disclose unless he wants to volunteer, so he won't be inundated with requests from all three serious N&W modelers. Besides, I feel that Rapido needs to supply the replacements to all who purchased the N&W undecorated models.

N&W 365-392 are phase 1C, and they do not have the equipment box behind the cab on the left side - handrails go straight across, and they lack the large rectangular actuator on the radiator. The actuator is rather prominent and it's present and molded in place for all three RS11 models (Atlas, Proto, Rapido). The only way to get rid of it is to cut out that part of the radiator and replace it. You can see how I did this on my model of 375 elsewhere on this site, and how I did it with the Rapido model. The radiator panel is actually a separate part and that would be a really good thing if it wasn't already super glued in place on the undecorated "kit". The shutter actuator for the radiator on this phase is actually a small mechanism forward of the radiator panel. It's fairly easy to scratchbuild it, as I did on the 375. Some brutality was involved in removing the parts from the Rapido shell and grafting them on but ultimately the super glue mostly yielded. Since I previously built a phase 1C from the Atlas model, building another one is probably not necessary. Not yet anyway.

So this project is building N&W 400, a phase 2A of which there were 8 on the roster - 393 to 400. My choice of 400 and the 375 earlier is a December 1975 photo in which I caught both units on a westbound at Osborn. The phase 2A needs the same modifications as the 1C - the actuator being changed from the large to small, the removal of the equipment box and subsequent handrail positioning, and - changing the spacing of the five box louvers from even spacing to two spaced apart and three grouped together. Removing the equipment box leaves a pair of short doors on the hood side that need to be replaced with tall doors.

The photos generally tell the story up to this point on 12/15/2020. I sacrificed the long hood from a Rapido undec unit to donate the tall hood doors and the radiator panels and at the same time cut out the nice multi-layer fan and grille to use on an RS36 build. The long hood can be sacrificed because the RS36 will wind up using the long hood from the Atlas Trainman series model, which is essentially a correct starting point. I've been posting photos to the faceplant (for those who insist on precision, that's my name for Mark Fuckerberg's billion dollar social spywork platform) in the Diesel List and N&W Modelers group. I am an admin on the former, but just a regular member on the latter. Stuff I post almost anywhere has a habit of disappearing... in case anybody wonders why I don't participate in the "Diesel Detailer" forum - I complained, on a completely different forum, about the DD forum's being split into so many sub-categories that it was impossible to follow. I didn't even mention it by name. It was also micro-moderated, if anything even remotely controversial happened entire threads were deleted. The result was a Stalin-like purge from the forum. My membership was erased along with every post I ever made. I decided to stop pouring my efforts down the drain - eventually had to do the same with the "Atlas Replacement Forum" when fear of controversy set of hair-trigger administration. I just don't have the patience to go to ground with these micro-managers. So here on my own web site, the stuff will stay.