First built for Union Pacific in the late 1980’s by General Electric, the DASH 8-40C diesel locomotives were identified by an enlarged exhaust stack and the mounting of the dynamic brake grids in a square-like unit behind the cab, which housed an enlarged equipment blower fan. These six-axle, 4,000 hp engines are still in service today in North America.

The 4,000hp Dash 8-40CW was produced by General Electric between 1989 and 1993 as a follow-up to the successful Dash 8-40C locomotive. The most distinguishing feature of this model was the introduction of GE’s version of the wide-nose “North American Safety Cab.” This style of cab would become a common sight on railroads across the country. Four major railroads purchased the Dash 8-40CW in fairly large quantities, including Conrail, CSX, Santa Fe and Union Pacific. Most of these units are still in regular mainline and heavy-haul freight service today. Due to various mergers, they can also be seen operating for new owners Norfolk Southern and BNSF.

Features:

• Ditch lights

• Number boards, sand fill hatch, and marker lights where appropriate by railroad (8-40CW only)

• Realistic die-cast underframe

• Highly detailed coupler cut bars

• Multiple unit hoses and trainline hoses

• Five-pole skewed armature motor with dual flywheels for optimum performance at all speeds

• Separately-installed scale windshield wipers, metal grab irons and fine scale handrails

• Directional lighting

• Painted crew members

• Snowplow and piping on trucks

• Recommended minimum radius: 22”

Upgraded Features for both Silver & Gold

• Metal Couplers

• Improved headlight/ditchlight color and brightness

• Independently controlled lit number boards

• Independently controlled lit marker lights (for appropriate road names)

• Improved windshield glazing

• Etched metal windshield wipers

• New cab side without sunshade mount track (for appropriate road names)

Silver Sound Ready

Atlas Silver Sound Ready models are equipped with a speaker for easy conversion to sound with the addition of a decoder.

Atlas Master Series Silver Additional Features:

• NMRA 21-pin plug for DCC (Decoder-ready)

Atlas Master Series Gold Additional Features:

• Supports all DCC-programming modes

• Flexible mapping of function keys F0 to F31 .

• Follows all NMRA DCC standards and recommended practices.

ESU LokSound Functionality Features:

• Over 20 sound effects are available, including engine start-up and shutdown, prime mover sounds through all eight notches, bell, air horn, air compressor, dynamic brakes and more.

• There are 16 user-selectable horns, 2 user-selectable bells, and 2 user-selectable synchronized brake squeals.

• Manual & Automatic Notching modes with the ability to change modes ”on the fly” are provided for true realism.