ScaleTrains Rivet 40780 HO Scale EMD SD40-2 Missouri-Kansas-Texas MKT 621 - DC (Unique Nose Striping)
The Rivet Counter™ series SD40-2 is the definitive HO Scale model of EMD’s best-selling diesel locomotive. This model combines smooth operating performance with unparalleled railroad, road number, and era specific details™. Even though the first SD40-2s were built 50 years ago, many continue in revenue freight service today.
FEATURES:
- New roadname
- Era: early 1980s
- Series 619 to 628; built 7/1980
- Road number 621
- Fully-assembled
- No truck ground lights (prototype not equipped)
- LED-Illuminated rectangular walkway lights mounted between front and rear sanding valve doors and round walkway light, aft of raised walkway duct*
- LED-illuminated front tricolor stand-off class lights***
- LED-illuminated Saturn 6552 strobe Light*
- Printed number boards with separately controlled backlit LED-illumination*
- Front EMD-style low pilot plow without multiple unit (MU) hose doors; with grab irons
- 3-hose multiple unit (MU) hose clusters with silver gladhands
- Semi-scale coupler buffer equipped with durable metal semi-scale Type E knuckle couplers
- Front and rear straight uncoupling levers with loop handles; two inner and two outer mounting brackets
- Notched pilot faces with high angled lifting slots
- Deck mounted multiple unit (MU) receptacles
- "Tall" stepwells with see-through steps
- Front and rear early small deck extension
- Handrail set with outward facing end rail mounting brackets and chain
- Front and rear standard drop steps
- Scale sectioned treadplate detail on walkways
- 88” low short hood with wheel handbrake and round vent on right side
- Bolted battery box doors with wide louvers
- Late cab sub-base doors with lift-off hinges
- Standard EMD headlight in number board housing
- Dash-2 cab with welded side window panels
- Rectangular vent on left cab side, towards rear of cab
- Detailed cab interior with separate floor, rear wall, seats, and standard AAR control stand
- Sliding cab side windows
- Tall clear wind wings with mirror at bottom mounted fore of cab side window on both sides of cab
- Standard EMD sunshades with long sunshade tracks
- Front mounted lost-wax brass cast Leslie RS-5T-R horn mounted cab numberboard housing with all chimes facing forward
- Rear mounted lost-wax brass cast Leslie S25 horn mounted on rear of long hood with single chime facing rearward
- Motorola ASP-16 “firecracker” antenna mounted on the cab
- Accurate hood door and long hood detail
- Late electrical cabinet "zig-zag" seam, closer to rear of cab
- Late welded ECAFB
- Late inertial air intake grilles with top and bottom drip rail
- “Post-1980” exhaust silencer
- Accurately-profiled "post-1980" extended-range (bulged) dynamic brake housing
- See-through dynamic brake intakes with resistor grid detail
- Corrugated radiator intake grilles
- See-through 48” single-speed radiator "Q-Fans” with fan blades visible inside
- Drop grab radiator fan grab iron
- Underbody frame rail with separate plumbing and traction motor cables
- Detailed HT-C trucks with Hyatt bearing caps, late center axle snubbers, sanding lines and brackets, and D-77 traction motor and air duct details
- Rust-color painted wheelsets
- Dimensionally accurate truck centers
- Speed recorders mounted to first and third axles on left front
- Rearward facing handbrake chain mount for HTC trucks
- Short jacking pads (late)
- Aft engineer’s side sidesill notch
- Tab-mount EFCO
- Frame-mounted steel bell
- Graham-White (Salem) brand 824-170 and 818-170 primary and secondary centrifugal air filters (accordion-style)
- 4,000-gallon fuel tank with dual fuel fillers, vertical gauge, round gauge in tank (right side only), and vertical breather pipe
- Factory-applied wire grab irons, wire lift rings, windshield wipers, trainline hoses with silver gladhands, sand hatch covers, and much 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
- Paint colors match Tru-Color Paint color: TCP-318 MKT Green, TCP-319 MKT Yellow
- Operates on Code 70, 83, and 100 rail
- Packaging safely stores model
- Minimum radius: 18”
- Recommended radius: 22”
- DC/DCC & sound ready locomotives also feature:
- Operates on DC layouts
- DCC ready with 21-pin connector
* Lighting features operate when using an ESU decoder with appropriate programming while operating using DCC.
** In DC operation, both front ditch lights illuminate; rear ditch lights (if equipped) do not illuminate.
*** Class lights illuminate in white color only in DC operation. Access and change the colors with an appropriately programmed ESU decoder while operating using DCC.
**** “PowerPack” feature is only compatible with appropriately programmed ESU decoders operating on a DCC layout.
In January 1972, the Electro-Motive Division (EMD) of General Motors would build the first production models of a locomotive design that would prove legendary: the SD40-2. As the flagship of the “Dash-2” series, the SD40-2 would build upon the lessons learned from its predecessor, the SD40. While the sixteen-cylinder 645E3 turbocharged prime mover remained the same as its SD40 cousin, the SD40-2 boasted a modular, solid-state electrical system, which featured removable “cards” in place of troublesome relays in its high-voltage cabinet. These cards greatly simplified troubleshooting electrical problems and streamlined repairs.
Externally, the biggest change was using new HT-C three-axle trucks instead of the Flexi-coil type C of the SD40s. The new truck promised greater adhesion, and was longer than the Flexi-coil C, necessitating an increase of the length of the SD40-2s frame to an overall length of 68’, 10” over the couplers. This also had the effect of giving the SD40-2 its characteristic long walkway “porches” at each end. Other small external improvements, such as longer battery box compartments, rear overhang on the cab roof, and drip rail over the front cab door, added to the list of external differences between it and the SD40.
Domestic production of the SD40-2 continued until July 1984, making it one of EMDs most popular locomotives of all time. Many remain in service today with original owners and secondhand operators like regional railroads and shortlines. Within the past decade, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific have rebuilt hundreds of SD40-2s to extend their operating lives. This will ensure this venerable locomotive’s presence on U.S. rails for decades.