Thursday, October 27, 2011

EMD SD 40

The SD40 locomotive and derivatives was/is a well known locomotive on the US railroad networks, also the Southern Pacific ordered 79 of these 3000 hp strong locomotives, that were powered by the then new EMD 645 engine, in a turbo charged V16 configuration. The SP received these locos numbered 8400-8478. Later on in life, they underwent the SP rebuild program, basically an effort to extend their life and reliability (upgraded controls etc). They were then renumbered in the 7300 series and went through life with the designation SD 40R .
I've just ordered a model of this locomotive. According to it's number its a rebuild unit, namely 7305. How accurate it is I do not know yet, perhaps there will be some work needed to fully reflect changes that may have occured during the rebuild. One thing I've noted from the pictures below is that the real loco has an additional set of lights on the nose, which the Athearn RTR model lacks, a nice little project to add in due time.




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