The Mighty SD40-2, from the Archives...

[E.M. Bell]

Been awhile since we dove into the archives. We are not going back to far this evening, but the subject matter more than makes up for that... Everyones favorite EMD (or it should be) ...the mighty SD40-2.  High Hood, low hood, Black, yellow or green...its all good...

NS 1627 of N&W Heritage leads a Southbound into Danville KY, running on the North main for some reason.  June, 2005




UP 3584 leads the (used to be) hot auto parts train 133 at Kings Mountain. May, 2004



BNSF 6780 sure looks small way down in the Bowels of the cut at Kings Mountain, leading 223 South.  May 2004.. I remember this trip well...I was riding with Caleb, the NS got slow and we decided to go to Corbin to shoot us some CSX...that didnt end well at all...



The most famous SD40-2 on the NS, the 3329, is 3rd out on this Southbound at Palm. This was only the Second (and last ) time I ever laid eyes on this one...and the only time I worked up enough never to hike to the top of "Youngs hill" amongst the Bulls and cowpies to get this shot. May, 2004

[J-man]

Most excellent  photo's Emmett.  And you go it right,  high hood or low hood, it's all good with the SD40-2.

[Batman]

oh yea , they be cool !

[TonytheTiger]

I was lucky one day at lunch and caught that "famous"  SD-40 pulling what I was later told was "stuff" for the Chinese embassy.

Rob Kitchen
Harrisburg, PA

[TonytheTiger]

The enlongated porches of the SD-40-2 always reminded me of the old Uniroyal commercials for  Tiger Paw tires.  The daily Annvile stone train still uses SD-40-2s in both high and low hood variations.  I took the first photo below last January, using a wide angle zoom to excentuate the "Tiger Paw" look.

The second photo is of the high hooded variety (sounds like we're talking about birds, eh?).

Rob Kitchen
Harrisburg, PA

[Batman]

[Bob Harpe]

Here's a shot of one of the Locotrol units.

[Batman]

[Batman]

[E.M. Bell]

You have never heard anything like the sound of Three 40's on Saluda Mountain...A orgy of olfactory  stimulation... and that was just the dynamics going DOWN hill  

1990, Saluda NC. 

[Batman]

Death of a SD40-2

[stillbre]

I agree, its hard to beat a SD40-2.  Very few schemes that didn't look good on them.  I'm especially fond of the Southern tuxedo and L&N gray and yellow on them but the ex-N&W units in NS black look really sharp, especially with a high nose.  My favorite EMD will have to be a SD45 though.  The flared radiators and the impressive sound of all those 20-cylinders made them look and sound tuff.  If I had to run down my top five favorite of all time, all would be EMD, and all but one would be 6-axles.
1. SD45
2. SD40-2
3. SD70 series
4. GP60
5. SD9
I need to go through my limited archives and get out some Toosh-Dah photos.