Life-Like’s N scale EMD GP20 diesel offers detail and smooth operation

Life-Like Products has released a nicely detailed and smooth-running N scale GP20. The Proto-N series model is factory-equipped with AccuMate magnetic knuckle couplers, prototype-specific dynamic brake, directional LED headlights and illuminated number boards.

Our Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. sample was crisply painted and featured impressively fine lettering – even the tiny Electro-Motive Division builder’s plate was neatly printed in correct blue, red, silver.

History. While it shares a basic body design with EMD’s GP7s, 9s, and 18s, the GP20 had a large rectangular turbocharger exhaust stack and tall flared fan housings. The majority (214 units) were built with the new sloping short-hood option.

The GP20’s history is unusual as it began with a Union Pacific experiment with turbocharging a number of its GP9s, proving to a doubting EMD that turbocharging would work with its two-cycle 567 engine.

In 1959, EMD introduced its turbocharged 2,000-hp GP20, but only 260 were built before it was replaced by the 2,250-hp GP30 in mid-1961.

Model construction. The Life-Like GP20 closely matches prototype dimensions published in the Model Railroader Cyclopedia: Vol. 2, Diesel Locomotives (Kalmbach Publishing Co.). The model’s three-piece body (cab, hood, and sill) has a number of factory-added details, including bell, horns, radiator fans, and thin-profile acetal plastic handrails.

The body slips off the chassis with a little tugging and wiggling, revealing a split-frame zinc-alloy chassis, a dual-brass-flywheel-equipped five-pole, skew-wound motor, and a pair of yellowish-white LED headlights.

All eight wheels pick up electricity, and all are powered. Two of the wheelsets on our sample were just a hair tight in gauge, according to our National Model Railroad Association standards gauge, but not enough to cause a problem on the common brands of turnouts.

The Life-Like GP20 performed smoothly and the model’s slow-speed performance was especially good, inching along at just 4.3 mph. The locomotive’s drawbar pull is about a half ounce, which is enough to haul only a 12-car train on level track.

The Life-Like GP20 is a good-looking model of EMD’s first turbocharged four-axle locomotive.

N scale Life-Like GP20

Price: $97.00

Manufacturer
Life-Like Products, LLC
1600 Union Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21211-1998
www.lifelikeproducts.com

Description
Plastic-and-metal locomotive

Road Names
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Burlington Northern; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; New York Central; Penn Central; Southern Pacific; Southern Pacific Santa Fe; Union Pacific; undecorated

Features
AccuMate magnetic couplers (mounted at the proper height)
Blackened wheels
Directional headlights
Drawbar pull: .48 ounce
Dual flywheel drive
Eight-wheel drive and electrical
power pickup
Engine weight: 1½ ounces
Minimum radius: 9¾”
No provision for installation of Digital Command Control (DCC)
Railroad-specific details