Lionel Legacy SD40T-2

Cant wait to see it!

Picked it up yesterday and set it up last night. Packaging was typical tight Lionel boxing with plastic wrap and blue ribbons around the engine and it came with the expected traction tires, smoke fluid dropper, etc. I must say that the front and rear details and side guardrails were very well protected with foam. 

I had my LHS put it on their test track to make sure it ran out-of-the-box. I do that now on all my new purchases and it ran great. They re-packed it for me and I willingly gave them my credit card.

After I removed it from the box at home, I visually inspected it again and put a drop of oil on the wheels and made sure no wires were binding and put a few drops of smoke fluid in - it loads through the top vent. The trucks on this model are big and I have to give kudo's to Lionel for designing it to operate it on my O-36 track  and I believe it will actually run down to O-31, too.

I then put it on the track and set it up initially as Engine #1 to make sure everything was still running right and it was. I then put it into Program mode and set it up as Engine #87 and went through the Info screens on the remote to load all of the Legacy information in. The Program/Run switch and Smoke on/off switch are located under the removable hood on the top, rear of the engine - better than on the bottom.

At that point, I fired her up and took the attached video and pics and she ran great. Maybe it's me, but it seems like Lionel has changed the engine sounds of the newer Legacy diesels to a more high "pitched " sound then before and I like it. It's tough to see in the video, but smoke output was good - after all, it's a diesel.

I really like the look of this "tunnel motor" Southern Pacific/Union Pacific locomotive (6-84636) - it's not something you see every day and will be a great addition to my roster.

Wow...  that looks great...  you got a patch engine...  really like that!

Thanks - I like things that are different and stand out and this model is just not something you see every day. I might have it backwards, but my understanding is that UP acquired the engines from SP/Rio Grande and just painted the nose, tail and patches on them in their colors.

I believe SP originally had a problem with the engines overheating while running them along their routes, which included a lot of long mountain tunnels in the southwest, and they came up with a cooling solution for the engines and that's how they got the nickname as "tunnel motors".

Nice photos Richie! I unboxed a few of those at work they other day, they are really neat. 

Nice pics. Disappointed Lionel did not correct the inward position of the trucks on this SD40T. MTH, in my opinion, did a better job on their SD45T truck placement.  

PAUL ROMANO posted:

Nice pics. Disappointed Lionel did not correct the inward position of the trucks on this SD40T. MTH, in my opinion, did a better job on their SD45T truck placement.  

Tried and failed.

PAUL ROMANO posted:

Nice pics. Disappointed Lionel did not correct the inward position of the trucks on this SD40T. MTH, in my opinion, did a better job on their SD45T truck placement.  

Would the inboard location allow the Lionel unit to run on tighter curves than the MTH unit ?

Richie C. posted:

PAUL ROMANO posted:

Nice pics. Disappointed Lionel did not correct the inward position of the trucks on this SD40T. MTH, in my opinion, did a better job on their SD45T truck placement.  

Would the inboard location allow the Lionel unit to run on tighter curves than the MTH unit ?

Good question. I am assuming so if the trucks are the same as the old SD40Ts which are designed differently than the MTH SD45T truck. 

Its not for that.  The location of can motor in the trucks on the sd40-2 and tunnels is why the truck cant go to proper position.  I have been asking for this fix since 2004.

Truck would need redesign so motor can be moved rearward so truck can go forward to correct location.  Current can motor location is too close to front windshield to allow the truck to be moved in forward position.

Beautiful loco - but that rear truck...I have never understood why an obviously mis-placed truck is preferable to seeing a bit of can motor through the low radiator screens. Paint the motor black. Sheesh. It eludes me.

I did not realize that there was a problem with the front truck; never noticed that on my Legacy CSX SD40-2....

The truck location sure is sore looking, sorry. These locos would look nice with proper placement. 

I'm enjoying my Rio Grande

Its not really too noticable on the tunnels.

Surefire posted:

I'm enjoying my Rio Grande

Sweet!

If I'm reading correctly - These are approximately $100 less then the BTO SD40 / SD45?

These SD40T-2 need kinematic pilots and an overall makeover.

These locomotives have the same issue the Lionel & MTH SD40-2's have. Most 3-railers are OK with the truck placement on these models otherwise they would've been fixed a long time ago.

Hope that's not Lionel Rio Grande GP35 orange on those Sd40's. If so it's time to cancel or change out for the Sp's. Ryan promised to fix that - Hope its just the lighting in the picture or reflection from the orange box. Looks okay in the picture posted by Eric's Trains - The yellows should be the same.

Like to see more pictures with better lighting on the standard Rio Grand version. They did it correctly on the GP9's

We don't want the GP35 orange again. One of Bob's old pictures - I still have 2 never out of the box

here is the real thing

I white balanced it a bit for you, looks fine to me. Seen plenty of pictures ranging from more yellow like you posted to more orange. I imagine the color varied over the years. It looks how I remember seeing them years ago, rarely did I see them that yellow like the photo you posted. I prefer it on the orange side, however those GP35's are too dark/red. I'll be ordering the other road number. 

If they are the same color on the straight Rio Grande model as the UP/Rio version shown by Eric's trains than it will be fine. Just a little wary from past let downs.

Blue Streak posted:

Hope that's not Lionel Rio Grande GP35 orange on those Sd40's. If so it's time to cancel or change out for the Sp's. Ryan promised to fix that - Hope its just the lighting in the picture or reflection from the orange box. Looks okay in the picture posted by Eric's Trains - The yellows should be the same.

Like to see more pictures with better lighting on the standard Rio Grand version. They did it correctly on the GP9's

We don't want the GP35 orange again. One of Bob's old pictures - I still have 2 never out of the box

Its not.  It has been fixed and is the PERFECT orange now...  i am happy with it...

#5405 in what is close to 'gp35 orange' which you can see is about a touch more red than this. 

#5405 after some months in the sun...

Here is a compare from a friends new rg tunnel vs. Gp35 orange...

So color looks good to most people for the long term appearance of RG equipment... Just a note, the old gp35 lashup pic is under my nasty florescent spot light (same one that made the GN 2-6-6-2 Look bright)...  the engines dont look that bad...  more like this picture directly above.

Blue...Actually the RG gp9 orange is NOT correct either!  That color is pre-1963 Aspen Gold and it should not be on any units with large logos, as those are later units.

In 1963 (about this time with GP30 ORDER) Aspen Gold was changed to be more ORANGE.  If you read on RG you will hear mention of it...  the color name stayed the same...

The pre 1963 aspen gold looks like the color lionel used on the LEGACY GP7 and Gp9s.  This is called 'switcher scheme'.  This is much lighter and too light a color to be on any 1970s RG engines.

It does look close to a highly weatherd out post 63 aspen gold faded badly...

Here is a pic of the switcher scheme on pre 1963 RG engines.  This is the Lionel Legacy GP7 on the right, the Lionel GP9 small logo on the middle, a swap, of the cab number of large logo gp9 to a small logo on left...

btw,  If someone out there likes the large logo GP9 and wants a second cab number, i have the sister swap one that i would sell, its never been run in 5914...

Bob,

The last picture in three posts up showing the Lionel GP35 next to the new Rio Grannde SD40T-2's sold me. That's what I was hoping for but the picture showed by Surefire scared me (sorry Surefire). Like I said wary after the GP35's

No worries...  i dont have these units (yet) but i compared it to the 'fresh paint' gp35 you can see its a good color for what these RGs looked like most of the time...

I was originally concerned they would be switcher scheme color, but that was fixed.  Im happy with the color of them...  i sent Lionel lots of pics and references...

catnap posted:

These locomotives have the same issue the Lionel & MTH SD40-2's have. Most 3-railers are OK with the truck placement on these models otherwise they would've been fixed a long time ago.

No, and not at those prices.