Kato N scale Great Northern Empire Builder streamliner

Great Northern’s colorful flagship streamliner, the Empire Builder, is now offered in N scale. These models represent the 1955 lightweight train. Made up of smooth-sided passenger cars pulled by Electro-Motive Division F7s, the streamlined Builder was painted in GN’s striking Omaha Orange and Pullman Green colors.

The prototype Empire Builder ran between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest cities of Seattle and Portland; the Chicago to St. Paul segment operated with E units on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy.

The train’s matched consist included assigned signature cars with the Empire Builder name on their letter boards and cars that carried Great Northern lettering. The GN cars rotated through other assignments in a pool of similar cars. A few cars were also owned by the Burlington and GN’s Spokane, Portland & Seattle subsidiary.

Kato offers its Empire Builder in sets that include some of the Great Northern cars. These sets allow the modeler to assemble a GN streamliner that’ll look good on any size layout. An eight-car train made up of sets A and B pulled by an F7 A-B consist will look great on a smaller layout, or you could add more equipment to make a prototypical 15-car train with an A-B-A locomotive.

Motive power. The EMD F7s are sold in a two-unit set (including an F7A and F7B) and as a single F7A. All of the locomotives are powered.

These locomotives have individual road numbers and steam generators. In GN’s typical A-B-A locomotive consist, they can pull the entire 15-car train on level track.

The passenger cars are available in four-car sets and depict the train as upgraded with Budd dome cars. Set A includes a 6-section, 6-roomette, 4-double bedroom sleeper; a dome coach; diner; and observation; set B features a Railway Post Office, baggage car, coach, and dome coach; and set C includes a coach, dome coach, and two 6-6-4 sleepers. Kato also offers a coach, a dome coach, and a sleeper separately.

All the passenger cars have properly gauged metal wheelsets and can be lighted using optional Kato lighting kits (sold separately).

Kato’s Empire Builder cars and locomotives are neatly decorated and detailed, although the antenna supports on the observation roof are a bit heavy.

The cars are repaints of previously offered smooth-side models that are mostly Union Pacific prototypes. Only the Railway Post Office is an accurate reproduction of a GN car, following the design of the American Car & Foundry RPOs built for the railroad in 1950 and 1951. Also of note, the set doesn’t include a Budd full-dome lounge car (GN’s Great Dome), that was also added to the Empire Builder in October 1955.

Though the non-GN carbodies detract from the train’s realism, the overall effect of the matched GN streamliner is still quite good.