Norfolk Southern - “SD40-2R”

With the split-up of Conrail, NS acquired several SD40 locomotives that had been rebuilt by Conrail.

Conrail so loved their SD40-2’s that in 1993 they decided to rebuild 40 units to ‘Dash 2’ specifications. For this project Conrail chose 30 of their own units and purchased an additional 10 former-Kansas City Southern SD40’s from PAC Rail leasing. Conrail placed these rebuilt SD40-2R’s into the series CR 6960-6999 (Source: “EMD SD40-2R Prototype Information”, http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/emd/sd402r/sd402rproto.html).

 

NS FEATURES:

• Nose brake or rear brake wheel
• Cab side vent
• RS3L horn
• Front snowplow
• Front ditch lights
• Extended-range dynamic brakes

 

Southern Pacific - “SD40R”

In 1981, SP instituted a GRIP rebuild of their SD40s, resulting in the SD40R. A workhorse locomotive for SP, they could be seen pulling freights all over the system.

#7342 was painted in a series of experimental schemes, featuring prominent usage of “Daylight” orange, the last of which is depicted on our model.

The SD40Rs remained in service into the 1990s. Deferred maintenance took its toll on the appearance of the units, as depicted by our other 3 offerings.

 

ROAD NUMBER SPECIFIC FEATURES:

• #7342 Unique Daylight paint, full light packages
• #7329 / #7344 / #7383 Faded paint colors, blanked front and rear gyralights, Prime beacon

 

Wisconsin & Southern - “SD40M-2”

Wisconsin Southern is a Class II railroad operating in Illinois and Wisconsin over former CNW and MILW trackage. The roster included a variety of EMD units, including some rebuilt SD40 units of mixed heritage. The units originally wore 40XX numbers but were re-numbered into the 41XX-42XX series in 2015. They could be found in any type of service.

 

WSOR FEATURES:

• RS3L horn
• Front and rear ditch lights
• Standard EMD plow
• Removed class lights
• Hood-side-mounted bell
• Special verbiage honoring Robert Hoesly on unit 4078

 

Union Pacific

Union Pacific made many changes to the painting and lettering of its locomotives throughout the years. These changes were made for a variety of reasons: to decrease cost, facilitate locomotive identification, or increase safety.

A major change came in 1984, when the aluminum color that had been specified for locomotive trucks since 1953 was changed to Harbor Mist Grey. This was done because the cost to paint the entire merged MP locomotive fleet was deemed to be too high.

These SD40s are decked out with their grey trucks, white handrail verticals, and large cab numbers, making them ideal mid-1980s power.

 

UP FEATURES:

• RS3L horn
• Strobe on cab roof (flash effect on DCC/sound version)
• Plain pilots
• Flexicoil low-brake trucks
• FARR radiator grills

 

Chicago and North Western

CNW 867-896 were built in 1966 and were the only SD40 units bough new by the road. Typical CNW features included a rooftop beacon and lack of dynamic brakes, although these units did not feature the prominent gong bells on the nose. Some carried their as-delivered paint into the 1980s.

 

CNW FEATURES:

• RS3L horn
• Western-Cullen beacon (flash effect on DCC/sound version)
• EMD standard plow
• No dynamic brakes

 

 

PROTOTYPE AND BACKGROUND INFO:

In 1966, EMD updated its locomotive catalog with entirely new models, all powered by the new 645 diesel engine. The SD40 had 3,000 hp from a turbocharged V16. 856 examples of this locomotive model were built for American railroads, 330 were built for Canadian railroads, and 72 were built for Mexican railroads.

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article “EMD SD40”; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

 

SD40 LOCOMOTIVE FEATURES:

• Photo-etched stainless steel windshield wipers
• Fully assembled and ready-to-run
• Separately applied wire grab irons
• Separately applied air tanks
• Coupler cut levers
• Rubber MU hoses
• Fine scale handrails molded in engineering plastic
• Non-sound version features 21-pin NEM DCC plug
• See-through dynamic brake and radiator fans
• Curved radiator fan grab iron
• Exhaust stack
• Frame mounted bell (unless noted)
• Detailed 4,000 gallon fuel tank (unless different capacity is noted)
• Flexicoil-C trucks with high or low brake cylinders (per prototype)
• McHenry scale knuckle spring couplers
• See through cab windows
• Bi-directional LED lighting
• All-wheel drive with precision gears for smooth and quiet operation
• All-wheel electrical pickup
• 5-pole motor with flywheels and multi-link drivetrain for trouble-free operation
• Wheels with RP25 contours operate on all popular brands of track
• Window packaging for easy viewing
• Highly-detailed, injection molded body
• Painted and printed for realistic decoration
• Fully assembled and ready-to-run
• Minimum radius: 18”
• Recommended radius: 22”

 

SOUND-EQUIPPED MODELS ALSO FEATURE

• Onboard DCC decoder with SoundTraxx Econami sound
• Single cube speaker for optimal sound quality
• Sound units operate in both DC and DCC
• Engine, horn, and bell sounds work in DC
• Some functions are limited in DC
• All functions NMRA compatible in DCC mode
• Effect lighting (if applicable) using F5 and/or F6
• Excellent low-speed operation
• Program a multiple unit (MU) lashup with lead unit only horn, bell, and lights
• Many functions can be altered via Configuration Value (CV) changes
• CV chart included in the box

 

PRIMED FOR GRIME MODELS FEATURE

• Duplicated look and feel of “In Service” equipment
• Faded base colors matched to the prototype
• Perfect starting point for adding grime and rust

 

 

Order Due Date: April 24, 2026

Anticipated Delivery Date: August 2027

 

Looking for more Athearn EMD (Electro-Motive Division) SD-40 Diesel Locomotives? Click here!

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