Cataloged from 1972-1986, the SD40-2 was the last hurrah of EMD's reign as the locomotive builder for America's railroads - a dynasty that began in the 1930s and vanquished Alco, Baldwin, Lima and Fairbanks-Morse. For more than a decade, the six-axle, 3000 hp SD40-2 was virtually the standard new-purchase engine for North American freight service, until General Electric dethroned EMD as the top-selling diesel builder in 1983.
Tasked with creating an upgrade to the already-solid SD40, EMD's designers created a locomotive that looked a lot like its predecessor but was better in almost every way. The major visual change from the SD40 was a three-foot longer frame with distinctive front and rear "porches," required to accommodate the new high-adhesion HT-C trucks - which improved both tracking and pulling power. Under the hood, upgraded traction motors and alternator, along with tougher pistons, piston rings and bearings in the 16-cylinder turbocharged model 645 motor, made the SD40-2 10-15% more reliable than the SD40 it replaced.
The most significant change, however, was a major advance in diesel technology: solid state electronics. Gone were the hardwired circuitry and the maze of switches, contacts, interlocks and relays that had characterized all earlier diesels and led to a well-known saying in locomotive shops: "With a steam engine, it took five minutes to find a problem and five hours to fix it; with the new diesels, it takes five hours to find the problem and five minutes to fix it." The transistors, printed circuit boards and other solid-state components that formed the electrical guts of the new -2 engines were both easier to maintain and more reliable, and paved the way for the computerized controls that would later introduce the third generation of diesel technology.
The SD40-2 turned out to be the apex of second-generation diesels, and the perfection of EMD's 645 diesel motor. Viewed as an industry benchmark for reliability, the SD40-2 became EMD's all-time best seller, with 3,949 regular SD40-2's delivered. Including variations - like Southern Pacific's famed "tunnel motors" and units with elongated noses that housed remote-control electronics - total production exceeded 5,700 locomotives, sold to 24 American and 6 Canadian roads, plus railroads in Brazil and Mexico. Even today, more than three decades after the last SD40-2 was delivered, more than 1,000 units are still rostered by the Big Six Class 1 railroads in North America.
Features:
- Intricately Detailed, Durable ABS Body
- Die-Cast Truck Sides, Pilots and Fuel Tank
- Metal Chassis
- Metal Handrails and Horn
- Moveable Roof Fans
- Metal Body Side Grilles
- Detachable Snow Plow
- (2) Handpainted Engineer Cab Figures
- Authentic Paint Scheme
- Metal Wheels, Axles and Gears
- (2) Remote-Controlled Proto-Couplers
- O Scale Kadee-Compatible Coupler Mounting Pads
- Prototypical Rule 17 Lighting
- Directionally Controlled Constant Voltage LED Headlights
- Lighted LED Cab Interior Light
- Illuminated LED Number Boards
- Lighted LED Marker Lights
- (2) Precision Flywheel-Equipped Motors
- Operating ProtoSmoke Diesel Exhaust
- Onboard DCC/DCS Decoder
- Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments
- Proto-Scale 3-2 3-Rail/2-Rail Conversion Capable
- 1:48 Scale Proportions
- Proto-Sound 3.0 With The Digital Command System Featuring Quillable Horn With Freight Yard Proto-Effects
- Unit Measures: 17 1/2" x 2 5/8" x 3 7/8"
- Operates On O-42 Curves
Diesel DCC Features
- F0 Head/Tail light
- F1 Bell
- F2 Horn
- F3 Start-up/Shut-down
- F4 PFA
- F5 Lights (except head/tail)
- F6 Master Volume
- F7 Front Coupler
- F8 Rear Coupler
- F9 Forward Signal
- F10 Reverse Signal
- F11 Grade Crossing
- F12 Smoke On/Off
- F13 Smoke Volume
- F14 Idle Sequence 3
- F15 Idle Sequence 2
- F16 Idle Sequence 1
- F17 Extended Start-up
- F18 Extended Shut-down
- F19 Rev Up
- F20 Rev Down
- F21 One Shot Doppler
- F22 Coupler Slack
- F23 Coupler Close
- F24 Single Horn Blast
- F25 Engine Sounds
- F26 Brake Sounds
- F27 Cab Chatter
- F28 Feature Reset
