Is there such an animal?

[Agatheron]

In my trainwatching of the nearby CN line, I've spotted a lot of different types of locomotives... not all of them CN or Via either. Here's the count for freight locos:

Dash 8-40CM: 4
Dash 9-44CWL: 3 (including 2 Norfolk Southern)
GP9RM: 6
SD40-2: 3
SD70I: 1
SD75I: 4

I've seen models out there for Dash 8's and 9's, GP9's are coming, SD40-2s... well I have one on the way...

The question I have has to do with the SD70I and SD75I... I know the SD70Mac exists as a model, currently manufactured by Kato. However, they don't have any CN road numbers. With an undecorated locomotive, that's actually not too hard to handle.

However.

How different is the SD70I and the SD70 Mac? What is the difference between a SD70Mac and a SD75I? Am I safe to buy an undecorated SD70 model and paint it up with CN decals and such?

 

[lock4244]

Without giving the dimentions (I don't have them), I know the SD70MAC is longer than the SD70/75I's. Two or three feet. Also, the SD70MAC has a so called "free-flowing blower duct" on the conductor's side with a hump/step in the handrails/walkway over the duct, whereas the 70/75I's have, for lack of a better term, a tall, wide and shallow box-like enclosure there with straight handrails. The battery? boxes extend out behind the cab giving the SD75 a longer elevated walkway behind the cab. There is another tall, wide and shallow box-like enclosure on the engineer's side, also below the motor blower intake grille. I was also hoping the Kato SD70MAC would be an easy staring point for the SD70/75I's, but it's not. The SD60M might be an easier way to go... but the trucks are wrong. Having been in N scale for some 20 years, I can tell you that I'll just wait for them to be come available in plastic... there's alot of other stuff to buy in the meantime! Being in N means two things to me. 1) your gonna wait a long time to get the equipment you want, and 2) when it's available it'll be in a limited run! I'm sure there are other details I've missed, but these seem to be the major ones.

Mike

 

[lock4244]

This picture shows most of what I talking about in my above post.

Mike

 

[lock4244]

The Kato SD70MAC.

Mike

 

[lock4244]

One more thing. The SD75 has that little extra squre grille at the rear (below the rad intakes) on the conductors side only. And look at the rear of the Kato SD70MAC... you'll see a bit of an extension on the carbody when compared to the SD75I.

Mike

 

[Agatheron]

Mike,

Thanks for the reply... I'm still learning about the locomotives and trying to get a handle on the differences between them. How common are the SD70I/75I's in some of the larger Roads? I suppose that would dictate the possibility of one of these coming out in the future...

In the meantime, maybe I'll try to find a CN Dash 9... Although actual purchasing may take a bit

 

[lock4244]

There were three buyers of the SD75I, CN, Santa Fe (BNSF), & ONR. If I'm not mistaken, the first deliveries to SF were SD75M's and somewhere during their 101 (I think) units they switched to the SD75I. CN's are all SD75I's, 175 delivered, 173 remaining in service. All six of ONR's SD75I's are in service, and they are identical to CN (they were tacked on to a CN order). So those of us modeling Southern Ontario will see two of the three fleets locally as ONR's are not uncommon in Toronto coming south on CN train #450 and returning north on #451.

SD70's are much more common (but not on CN). CN has 26 SD70I units, and IC has 40 SD70 units. IC 1013 was on #450 this past Friday oddly enough. UP has well over 1000 SD70M's... I'm not sure of the exact number. SP had 25 SD70M's (now on UP), CSX has some former EMD lease SD70M's, and NS has both SD70 and SD70M's. Some of the NS units were delivered to Conrail just before the split.

Thanks to Union Pacific's massive SD70M fleet, I think it's only a matter of time until someone produces it in N.

The Dash 9 would be a good model to concentrate on for now. You can get the proper cabs for the C44-9WL from Kaslo shops, who also make SD50F and SD60F shells for Atlas frames, and are coming out with an M420W shell soon.

Mike

 

[Agatheron]

Thanks... I'm still working on a budget. My 2 locomotives at the moment are a Via P42DC and a CN SD40-2. I'm hoping to get at least one more SD40-2, maybe one of the new undecorated Atlas GP9's that I can paint and decal up to use as a switcher... and then hopefully one of the bigger six axle machines... Dash 9 would be preferrable, but I'll be watching the releases to see if there's an SD70I/75I out there...