Parts for sd40-2 HH ?

[Justin Stephenson]

I was wondering about a SD40-2 HH  also   does kaslo make a high hood kit ? if anyone know  i  would love to who makes a kit ?

[nssd70]

Go out and buy the Athearn high hood SD40-2.

Doug

[Justin Stephenson]

Has athearn fixed there truck problems ? ive always had truck problems with athearns just wanna know if the new ones are improved ?

[Backyard]

  What sort of truck problems have you experienced with Athearn?

[Justin Stephenson]

Well the problems we were getting with the truck were that they just kept falling off when all our other loco's stayed on  .... and the pick ups also get old  and screw up really fast and easy so  we stopped buying athearns but we want to know if the knewer ones have got better/?

[nssd70]

I have around 40 Athearns and have never had any problems.

doug

[scooter3798]

Since Athearn has gone to the hex drive they run much better. They are not as smooth as an Atlas or a Kato, but definetly much improved over the older drive that they had on the blue box stuff. As for the high hood kit, Cannon and Company is the way to go. If you are interested in one of the earlier -2's check out the article on Chirs Toth's site by Bob Harpe, it is very well done.

http://www.nsdash9.com/harpe/harpe.html

Scooter

[darkhorse2]

if you can find them, the lbf high hood kit is a perfect fit for a kato. just saw off the battery box and drop it right in. the cannon kit will need to have a strip of styrene added to its length for sd's but is a good fit for gp50's .

[Backyard]

  Aside of the breath-taking performance of Kato, your best way to go is the Athearn releases...you'll get the latest technology available, at a reasonably low price.

There is no way to compete with the attention to detail that Athearn has given to road specific parts, styling, etc.

There is less chance that as a finished model you may find you left something out...then try to rework the model...

I've styled locomotives since the early '70's & the releases from Athearn, Atlas, Walther's, Life-Like Proto2000, etc are produced at such a low cost & high quality that the only thing you may need to do is purchase undecorated units & play with styling!

[scooter3798]

The only bad thing about the Athearn SD40-2 is that it sits too high. It has been a problem with their SD40-2 since they brought the first ones out, I think it equates to being about a half a foot too high. The problem isn't all that noticable on them when you have them sitting by themselves, but put one of them up next to an Altas unit and the hieght issue becomes obvious. It really amazes me that they didn't correct this issue in any of the reworkings that they have done on the 40-2. There are also a couple of other less obvious issues with the Athearn 40-2. However, as backyard said, you basically just have to pull the Athearn 40-2 out of the box and you have a decent looking model.

Scooter

[Backyard]

  I remember the blue box gp38-2 had the same problem...seems like they would have fixed that by now.

I preferred the Athearn units because in momentum operation, they would gain speed downgrade...

[scooter3798]

It really is a shame that they haven't fixed it, but what is even more of a shame is the fact that there really isn't an accurate SD40-2 on the market. It blows my mind that we can get accurate models of such relatively obscure locos like the RS-27, U28B, SD38-2, and SD80MAC's, yet we can't get an accurate model of one of the best selling locos of all time! Essentially all there is on the market is the, for all intensive purposes, 25 year old Athearn offering, and the Kato, which has its own set of shortcomings, I will not even consider the GHB and Broadway offerings as alternatives. Thank fully Atlas finally saw the light with the GP40-2, maybe they will go after the SD40-2 sometime, or for those that like the oddballs, how about the C39-8! I have to admit though as a longtime C39-8 fan I would be in for a couple of those, any phase but the C39-8E.

   Scooter

[Justin Stephenson]

Yea i have been waiting for somebody to come out with a c39-8 i wouldnt care if it was bachmen or whatever id get it and fix whatever i oculd to get one of the most unique locomotives of all time! Well atlas is good for comeign out with some odd ball locomotives , surprised they havnt brought out an sd40-2 of some sort yet  , as far as Kato goes they gotta get there but in gear abd when they make a model , have some more choice of paint scheme's instead of the  2 they just brought out SP and UP , and  with they sd40-2 there  great ! only problem ive had with the 3 we have is one of them have this ditch light problem , And what really GRINDS MY GEARS! is they no one has brought ou a CORRECT NS DASH 9 !!! that really pisses me off.... but any how i guess they expect us to go and waste an Atlas unit to get a high head light cab , scrap the body , and throw the cab on the athearn dash 9 frame or kato frame!

[Backyard]

  Wait a minute there...!

I used the blue box sd40-2's on my layout using 18" radius curves...I did have to file the frame to allow the trucks to pivot freely, however I ran them with no other problems!

Later I learned how to hard-wire the connections as explained...I knew how to solder.

If you are ok with the performance of the "5-pole skew wound can motor," you can modify that loco to perform...especially if you can assemble a high short hood unit!

[stillbre]

if you can find them, the lbf high hood kit is a perfect fit for a kato. just saw off the battery box and drop it right in. the cannon kit will need to have a strip of styrene added to its length for sd's but is a good fit for gp50's .

If you want a reasonably accurate high hood anything, do not use the LBF kit.  Its not worth the plastic is made from.  The Cannon may require some assembly but its a much nicer part and fits everything.  You do not need to modify it in any way to get any high hood from a GP/SD35 to a GP50.  The EMD high nose stayed at 81" until the end of its existence.  Athearn incorrectly made the high nose for its GP40X 88" on the first run of Southern units but fixed it for the NS units and later re-ran the Southern with correct noses.
For me, the only benefit of the Kato SD40-2 is the drive.  No one will ever make a smoother drive.  Except for the latest run of "mid-production" models will built-in ditch lights, the shells are garbage.  The new run has had some pretty nice details added but for the most part are still the same crappy shell released back in the 90s.  The new Athearn has a much improved drive not to mention the best SD40-2 shell ever produced.  It still has some issues in the step wells where Athearn modified things to run on 22" or tighter curves but other than that is very nice.  The new RTR line has prototypical details already installed.  The factory Southern and NS models are very nice and don't require much, if any, detailing for the majority of the modelers out there.

[River Run]

If you are interested, you can follow along with my build pretty much step by step at my Diesel Detailer Forum. Here is a link to the article. http://dieseldetailer.proboards53.com/index.cgi?board=pro1&action=display&thread=391