In March and April of 1930, the Great Northern Railway received fourteen 4-8-4s from Baldwin and assigned them to the S-2 class, numbering them 2575 through 2588. The S-2s were designed and built to haul passengers on the GN mainline, pulling the Empire Builder and the Oriental Limited. They were assigned to the Montana division for service between Williston, North Dakota and Havre, Montana, and the Spokane division for service between Spokane and Wenatchee, Washington. Most of the S-2's were retired in the late 1950's. Number 2584 still survives and is on display at the Havre, Montana depot.

All fourteen of the S-2's were delivered in the gorgeous Glacier Green paint scheme with standard open cabs. By the late 1950's, all of the locomotives were repainted to the all-black paint scheme. Number 2577 received a vestibule cab in the 1930's and numbers 2582, 2586, 2587, and 2588 received the vestibule cab by the late 1940's. In this production, BLI is offering four models with the open cab and three with the vestibule cab. For the first time, we are offering one model, number 2584, in the black paint scheme with the "Great Northern Railway" logo. All of the models have hand-crafted brass bodies and die cast chassis. All models come equipped with our Paragon4 Sound/DC/DCC sound system with synchronized puffing smoke and integral GoPack capacitors.

Industry-leading Model Features:

• ALL-NEW Paragon4 Sound & Control System

• Synchronized Puffing Smoke with Chuff Sound

• Variable Puffing Smoke Intensity and timing

• Separate Whistle Smoke Feature - smoke streams from whistle area when whistle is blown

• Integral DCC Decoder with Back EMF for Industry Best Slow Speed Operation in DC and DCC

• Precision Drive Mechanism engineered for continuous heavy load towing and smooth slow speed operation

• 5-Pole Can Motor with Skew Wound Armature

• Heavy Die Cast Boiler, Tender Body, and Chassis for Increased Tractive Effort

• Premium Caliber Painting with Authentic Paint Scheme

• Prototypical Light Operation with Separately Controllable Headlight, Reverse Light, Cab Light

• Factory-installed Engineer and Fireman Figures

• Prototypically Accurate Details for Each Road Number

• Many Separately Applied Details such as Handrails, Ladders, Piping, Cab Glass, Whistle, Brass Bell, Markers, Numberboards, and Many Others

• Equipped with Rubber Traction Tires for Increased Pulling Power

• Recommended Minimum Radius: 22 inches

• Accurate Prototypical Sounds for the GN S-2 Northerns

Broadway Limited Imports is proud to introduce Paragon4: The new benchmark for premium HO sound-equipped locomotives. These DC and DCC-Sound equipped locomotives feature the ALL-NEW Paragon4 sound and control system. Each Paragon4 locomotive comes with BLI's own integral DCC Decoder factory installed. Paragon4 locomotives offer Dual Mode DC and DCC operation with superb back EMF motor control, improved DC motor control, built-in capacitor pack for more reliable electrical pick-up, industry best on-board sound with Rolling Thunder functionality, Pro Lighting Mode for prototypical light control, Switcher model for precise low speed control, recordable DCC operation for automated playback, and the same excellent detail level as Broadway Limited's Paragon3 Series models. 

Paragon4 Sound & Control System Features:

• Operates in DC & DCC with improved DC speed control (use DCMaster for DC Sound)

• Built-In capacitor pack to navigate imperfect track

• Capacitor Pack automatically disabled on program track for full compatibility with JMRI Decoder Pro

• Pro Lighting Mode offers individual control of all lights on model

• Switcher Mode for precise low speed control.

• Record & Play Operation - Records and plays back sounds and movements once or repeatedly for automatic operation

• High Resolution Audio

• Quillable Whistle for various whistle lengths and patterns

• Choice of 3 selectable Horns

• Alternate Whistle / Horn where applicable for locomotive with air horn and steam whistle - both the main whistle and alternate can be easily played

• Adjustable bell ringing interval for faster or slower bell

• Numerous user-mappable functions with available keys

• Johnson Bar Sound at Direction Change

• Multiple realistic passenger and crew sounds play on command

• Grade Crossing Automatic Signal

• Automatic Forward / Reverse Signal - When activated, stopping triggers and stop whistle toot. When moving forward from a stopped position, toots twice. When moving in reverse. toots three times.

• Chuff sound intensity varies with load

• Individually adjustable sound volumes for each effect

• EZ Reset Button for quick return to factory default settings

**Specifications on this page subject to change.