ScaleTrains Rivet Counter N SXT41039 DCC Ready EMD SD40T-2 Rio Grande Late Positive Traction Control D&RGW #5362

Description

Please note picture is representative of the item but may not be same road number. Always refer to product description for actual product details.

ScaleTrains Rivet Counter N SXT41039 DCC Ready EMD SD40T-2

Rio Grande Late Positive Traction Control D&RGW #5362

Road Number Specific ScaleTrains

• Era: Mid 1980s to Mid 1990s
• Series 5356 to 5373; built Jul-Aug 1975
• Fully-assembled 
• Multiple new road numbers
• Operating Mars SBW-2-301 signal light in low short hood*
• Class lights (non-operating)
• Printed and LED-illuminated number boards*
• “McCarty” type re-rail frogs
• Front EMD-style low pilot plow with MU hose doors and grab irons
• Front and rear 3-hose MU hose clusters with silver gladhands
• Body mounted knuckle couplers; Micro-Trains compatible
• Coupler box accepts Micro-Trains 1015/1016 couplers without modification
• Front late small deck extension
• Late front drop step (“fixed”)
• Scale sectioned treadplate detail on the walkways
• Front "tall" stepwells and rear “ladder” steps
• 81” low short hood with ratchet handbrake and angled chain guard
• Bolted battery box doors with narrow louvers
• Early cab sub-base doors with early hinges
• Standard EMD headlight in numberboard housing
• Dash-2 cab with bolted side window panels and D&RGW blue flag bracket
• Original cab front door 
• Standard Mirror mounted fore of cab side windows, both sides
• Rear cab side vent on right side
• Standard EMD sunshades and long sunshade tracks
• Lost-wax brass Nathan M3R1 (“M-3”) three-chime horn, center rear of number board housing
• Large Sinclair Excalibur “ice skate” antenna (communications) and small wedge antenna mounted on cab roof
• Early electrical cabinet "zig-zag" seam, further from rear of cab
• Stand-off ECAFB (early)
• Intermediate inertial air intake grills with top drip rail
• Standard turbo exhaust stack
• Accurately-profiled extended-range dynamic brakes with batten strip
• Front straight uncoupling levers with loop handles and two inner and two outer mounting brackets
• Straight rear uncoupling lever with four mounting brackets
• Handrail set with inward facing end rail mounting brackets, rear anticlimber and chain
• Notched pilot faces with low mounted angled lifting slots
• Deck-mounted MU receptacle
• Detailed cab interior with separate floor, rear wall, seats, and standard AAR control stand
• Accurate hood door and long hood detail
• See-through standard 48” dynamic brake fan housings with fan blades visible inside
• See-through radiator intake compartment 
• Etched-metal radiator exhaust grills with radiator shutters visible underneath
• Underbody frame rail with separate plumbing and traction motor cables
• Retrofitted PTC wheel slip pickups on left side axles 1-3, and right side axles 4-6
• Speed recorder third axle, right side
• Tall jacking pads with holes (early)
• Sill-mounted EFCO
• Frame-mounted bell
• Graham-White (Salem) brand 824-170 and 818-170 primary and secondary centrifugal air filters (accordion-style)
• Standard air tanks
• 4,000 gallon fuel tank with dual fuel fillers, vertical gauge, round gauge in tank and vertical breather pipe 
• ACI labels mounted on plates attached to handrail stanchions
• Factory-applied wire grab irons, windshield wipers, trainline hoses with silver gladhands, and more
• Motor with 5-pole skew wound armature
• Dual flywheels
• All-wheel drive
• All-wheel electrical pick-up
• Directional LED headlights
• Printing and lettering legible even under magnification
• Operates on Code 55 and 80 rail
• Packaging safely stores model
• Minimum radius: 9 3/4”
• Recommended radius: 11”

DCC & sound equipped locomotives also feature

• ESU LokSound 5 DCC & Sound decoder with “Full Throttle”
• One (1) cube-type speaker
• EMD 16 Cylinder 645E3 prime mover
• Operates on both DC and DCC layouts**

DC/DCC & sound ready locomotives also feature

• Operates on DC layouts**
• DCC ready with E24 connector

* Lighting features operate when using an ESU decoder with appropriate programming while operating using DCC

**Lombard Hobbies Recommendation - As modelers ourselves we highly recommend ONLY running DCC on DCC systems and DC on DC systems, regardless of 'Dual-Mode' capability. This gives optimum performance and safeguards the unit from possible damage from running on a different system than originally intended and from any inexperienced operator errors. 

Prototype History

Due to their rugged operating environment, stretching from the Pacific coast to the Sierra Nevada, to the deserts of the Southwest, Southern Pacific Railroad, and its subsidiary, the St. Louis-Southwestern (aka Cotton Belt), weren’t shy about ordering specialized equipment. The famed AC-series “Cab Forward” articulated consolidation steam locomotives were one example, designed with tunnel and snowshed operation in mind. Partway into SP’s diesel era, the tunnels and snowsheds common on the western half of the system would again prove to be an operational headache, thanks to locomotives overheating during long pulls in their cramped confines. Once they overheat, thermostatic controls would automatically make the unit reduce its output, or even shut down altogether, resulting in a loss of horsepower that may be enough to stall the train.

SP and EMD would collaborate on finding a solution to the problem. One idea that was tested in the late 1960s was “Elephant Ears”, large sheet-metal airfoils, applied to the radiator intakes of various members of SP’s large SD45 fleet. While effective at their intended purpose of directing a greater volume of cooling air towards the radiators, and reducing overheating problems, they were a maintenance hassle that blocked easy access to numerous hood doors. Engine crews also disliked them, as they could impede the walkways. A more permanent solution would be found in 1972, with the delivery of the first SD45T-2 to SP. Cataloged by EMD as an extra-cost option of their basic SD45-2 … “SD45-2 with cooling system modifications”, as described in EMD product manuals from the early 1970s … the SD45T-2 built upon the basic principle of the elephant ears, but in a permanent package. The modified radiator system, with large intakes mounted near the walkway level, was designed with more efficient cooling in mind; in particular, faster recovery between tunnels and snowsheds. A success, SP would order a “T-2” variant of the SD45T-2s cousin, the SD40-2.

For the SD40T-2, the basic SD40-2/45-2 frame was stretched several feet to allow for an enlarged radiator compartment at the rear of the long hood, similar to what was done for the SD45T-2. Instead of the traditional placement of the radiator fans on the long hood roof, above the radiator cores and intake grills, the T-2 design placed the radiator fans and a diffuser assembly inside of the hood, below the radiator cores, and above a large, open radiator intake area placed at walkway level, resulting in faster, more efficient cooling. SP 8300, built in 1974, would be the first SD40T-2, whose fuel-efficient sixteen-cylinder 16-645E3 prime mover would prove to be more popular than the thirsty twenty-cylinder 20-645E3 used in the SD45T-2. 

In the Rockies, coal hauler Rio Grande faced similar operating challenges as SP in regards to long tunnels and heavy grades, such as the massive Moffat Tunnel, stretching over 6 miles long. Liking what it saw in the SD40T-2, Rio Grande would order them as well, taking delivery of its first units in 1974. Painted black with Aspen gold striping on the ends, sidesill, and number board box, a total of 73 units would be delivered to the Grande. Eschewing cab air conditioning, Rio Grande optioned a dual Gyralite assembly mounted in the low short hood (initial deliveries featured Mars brand signal lights, with their slightly different housing and light beam pattern), and most distinctively, requested a 4,000-gallon fuel tank, in contrast to the longer 4,400-gallon tank specified on all SP/SSW SD40T-2s.

Popular with engine crews and maintenance forces alike, the SD40T-2 would form the backbone of the SP and Rio Grande locomotive fleets well into the 1990s. Physical changes would appear to their fleets over the years; as a cost-cutting measure during the mid-1980s, as SP was struggling during an economic downturn, as well as the failed SPSF merger, the distinctive Gyralite signal lights, with their electric motors and moving parts, started to be removed, replaced by Prime Stratolite “digital” rotary beacons on the cab roof, which featured no moving parts to maintain. Also deleted were the expensive engineer’s side “L” front cab windows, replaced by cheaper, more standardized pieces of impact-resistant glazing. 

On Rio Grande’s fleet, changes were subtle; following the success of their SD50s, in 1985 Rio Grande began to retrofit their SD40T-2s with Positive Traction Control, or PTC (different from the definition of PTC in the 2000s), which promised increased tractive effort on par with the newer SD50s. The retrofit consisted of wheelslip sensors added to all axles, as well as an electronic control cabinet added to the walkway behind the cab, on the conductor’s side. By 1989, the SP/SSW and Rio Grande SD40T-2 fleets would become one, with the purchase of Southern Pacific by Rio Grande Industries, with the better-known Southern Pacific name being used as the corporate image for the combined companies.

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