Prototype. The SD40-2, built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division, could be customized according to a railroad’s specifications. One variation was the high short hood.
Railroads including the Southern Ry. and Norfolk & Western Ry. favored high short hoods and long-hood-forward operation for increased crew safety. However, short-hood-forward operation offered crews better visibility. To accommodate either operation, the Southern ordered its high-short-hood diesels with bi-directional control stands. (N&W used dual control stands).
The prototype no. 3205 started its career in Southern Ry. livery. After the 1982 merger of the Southern and the N&W, the locomotive received the Norfolk Southern paint scheme.
The hood access doors and other molded details on the model’s plastic body shell are crisply defined. The walkways and pilot decks have diamond-tread pattern surfaces. The pilot steps have a see-through tread pattern.
I especially liked the separately applied air-intake grills on the sides of the hood. The firecracker antennas, scale profile handrails, and m.u. hoses are also separately applied. Our NS sample also has correctly positioned air horns on both the short and long hoods.
The model’s paint scheme matches prototype photos of no. 3205 as the locomotive appears today. All lettering is correctly placed according to prototype photos. Our sample has a stray dab of white paint along the edge of the rear cab stairwell on the engineer’s side.
As on the prototype, a small “F” on each side sill designates the long-hood end as the front of the locomotive. Both the engineer and fireman figures are positioned facing toward the short hood.
An additional die-cast metal weight fits over the motor, with a printed-circuit (PC) board mounted on top of it. The PC board has an eight-pin socket for a Digital Command Control decoder.
Out of the box the model’s mechanism was heavily lubricated. I cleaned excess oil off the frame and body.
The mechanism is quiet, and the SD40-2 accelerated smoothly to 88 scale mph. The top speed of the prototype is 76 mph.
If you’re a fan of the roads that rostered SD40-2s with high short hoods, you’ll want to check out this HO model from BLI.
Price: $149.99 (DC, no sound), $249.99 (DCC sound)
Manufacturer:
Broadway Limited Imports
9 E. Tower Circle
Ormond Beach, FL 32174
www.broadway-limited.com
Road names (two road numbers each): Norfolk Southern (black sill and white sill stripe), CP Rail, Norfolk & Western, Norfolk & Western (“NW” scheme), and Southern Ry.
Era: 1972 to present day
Features:
All-wheel drive and electrical pickup
Five-pole skew-wound motor with dual brass flywheels
Golden white light-emitting-diode headlights
Operating knuckle couplers at correct height
Painted engineer and fireman figures
Minimum radius: 18″
RP-25 contour metal wheels, in gauge
Weight: 1 pound 5 ounces
I bought this model about a year ago and it has been a great addition. The lighting, detail and sound are all fantastic. Smooth runner with great pulling power.
I have a pre-90's Athearn SD40-2 decored for old Conrail, and it jumps the track at a switch in my yard. Overall though, I still like the quaility and I know some people with BL SDs and they love them.
I have bought three of them so far and all of them come heavily lubricated with oil. I had to clean up one engine where the oil leaked out of the trucks onto the side frames and under side of the trucks. All three engines run well but jerk at low speeds like there is a spur in the gears. The sound is fantastic on those engines, especially the idle. The sound brings me right back to the 80s when the SD40-2s were in their prime. Their dynamic brake sound is bad and sounds nothing like a real dynamic brake fan whine. Other than that I really like the sound decoder. I have also had some random problems with the decoders using a Digitrax system. They will take off and stop irratically but that could be a Digitrax error. I reset my Digitrax DCS and it stopped for now but the decoders all responded the same while other engines did not. Very wierd. Overall, I give them a 4 out of 5 or 9 out of 10. Time will tell if the decoders are bad and the drives smooth out and run better.
I have afew Broadway locomotives and this one looks pretty good willpossible try one in the future
What a winner! Looks, sounds and operates great. Nice job BL.
have my first BLI loco, runs great, sound is even better than i expeted , will be more on on my shopping list to come.
runs great ,sonnds great will not be the last one , will be perchaseing more real soon.
Bought an engine over the internet. On the first run I noticed a jerking motion at all speed ranges. I took the engine to my local hobby store and had my findings confirmed.
I sent the unit to Broadway for repair,it will take 7 to 8weeks (bad costumer service)before the engine gets send back to me. Reading all the other comments it looks like that there is a common problem with a jerking motion
NICE JOB! Need two get one!
I purchased two of the new SD 40-2s. I thought the sound chip was so bad I replaced both of them with the new Soundtrax replacement boards. That worked so well that I purchased a non sound engine and installed Soundtrax decoder in it. I will probably purchase one more of the non sound equiped SD 40-2s.
I think they did a good job on the body shell. Yes they should have had ditch lights on both ends of this engine. Since I model 1990 I removed the ditch lights. I also had wires fall off of the motor abd trucks.
And yes trying to get rid of the jerkyness at low to mid speed range is problem for me. I have a other Broadway engines that do not do this. All in all this engine coud have been a 10 but i'll call it a 7.
Just purchased the Southern #3209 model and am really happy with it so far. Runs and sounds great. This is the first BLI model I've purchased, so I'm interested in how this model compares to the 3 Atlas Master Gold series locos I have had for a while now.
The model I bought was soaked in oil too.
But I've got another question: the model has ditch lights on the cab end only. Shouldn't it have ditch lights on the "front" (long hood) end too?
they seem to be nice looking models. Anyone doing the current day NS will have to change the horns as on the prototype they are all % chime forward facing. At least all the units I have seen, refer to prototype photos for verification.
truly a great locomotive, only problem is ,it seems a bit "jerky" at mid range, but other then that its a great runner