Locomotives:
1. How many locomotives do you really need for your layout?
10 - Usually two consist containing four locomotives each with two in the switch yard.
Or how many locomotives do you want to have?
A pair of every modern locomotive on the market today - so far about 72 of them...
Yep - Go to the Kato website and click on consumers then scroll down on the left side of the page to "SD40-2 truck removal instructions".
http://www.katousa.com/
This will help others as I am sure you have already completed yours.
I did not know Kato made a SD40 with pick-ups like that. I have several SD40-2's with those type pick-ups and I have hardwired all of them which eliminated this problem.
Go to this thread on the Atlas forum and I have posted pictures of how I solved this problem...