Hello
What is the difference between GP-50 and GP-40 in the Ho Scale train engines?? Is it a difference in power or just a different name?
Athearn’s GP40-2 and GP-50 locomotives use the same drive train, so they are mechanically identical. The prototypes are significantly different. The GP40 & -2 upgrade is 3000 hp. The GP50 is 3500 hp and has several visual differences such as deeper radiator grilles, slightly longer hoods, angled blower ducts & straight side-sills (the last two features appeared on late production 50’s) and various versions of the Blomberg-M truck.
…and finding a GP-50 is like searching through the proverbial haystack!! I have been searching for a matching engine for my BN #3125 GP-50, Phase 2 for about a year and I have not been able to find any GP-50s, much less one in BN livery. But it does run well and will get a decoder sometime soon.
GP 50’s are hard to find because not many railroads used them…Athearn makes one, but for prototype operation, do some research first, because Athearn makes them in roadnames that never owned GP-50’s and there’s a good chance your railroad didn’t own one either…I purchased one in a DRG&W paint scheme and found out later that they never owned a GP-50 so i had to strip it down and detail and paint it in UP armor yellow and harbor mist gray …UP did own a few of them and one of the few that did own one from the southwestern railroads that i model…chuck
I’ve never been able to tell the two apart.
I would like to say that my railway, the Alberta Pacific, has the largest fleet of GP50s and 60s in the world, and almost exclusively powers intermodal trains with them.
Matthew
Athearn made a GP40-2 and a GP60 in Rio Grande, never a GP50. Rio Grande owned both the GP40-2 and the GP60, never a GP50. To my knowledge Athearn made models of the GP50 only in the roads that owned them. UP inherited the 30 GP50s that Mopac bought, so yes there would be a Union Pacific model offered. There are numerous diesel rosters on line to check who owned what model of Geep[:I].
There must be someone there who is, or was, custom painting Athearn locomotives in incorrect paint schemes and claiming they are factory painted. I remember a few months ago someone on this forum said he had an SD40T-2 factory painted in the SPSF scheme, but it had SF instead of SP.
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=29785
It is funny that Athearn offered the GP60 numbered for two of the three GP60s DRGW had but did not offer the third one.
The GP 50 also had larger anti-climbers than the GP 40 if I’m not mistaken.
Point of interest: did you know the Athearn GP 50 PHII is just a GP 60 shell with a GP 50 dynamic brake blister?
oh no?..here’s pics of a GP 50 after I stripped the DRG&W paint from it and turned it into a UP GP-50…Athearn did make them in roads that never owned a GP-50. the first picture shows 2 Athearn DRG&W GP-50 locomotives in the background that they never owned before I stripped them and redid them in UP.
chuck
Chuck, nice custom paint job! However, is it just me or does that shell look like a GP60 with the angular dynamic brake intake. I do know that the post-anchutz SP had 3 GP60’s in DRGW paint because the speed-letering scheme had not yet been developed.
UP also got C&NW’s GP50’s. C&NW had 50 of them #s 5050-5099. I believe only 48 of them made it to UP because of wrecks.
NS also has some rebuilt GP50’s that they call GP38-3 or something like that. Here’s a picture http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=104127
Shell is an Athearn GP60. The dynamics give it away, good catch Jarrett.
I third that.
I disagree with the GP 60 theory you guys are looking at…Do you see the hole in the side of the shell between the “n” and the “i” of “union” near the radiator grills?..the GP 50 was the only shell to do that, the GP 60 had wider radiator grills, and if you’re going on the dynamic brake alone then you might want to take a closer look…the GE dynamic brake was standard on most second generation EMD diesels, also, it’s a photograph optical illuision…the dynamic brake intake is as square as a picture frame if you saw it close up in RT …besides that…I purchased them as 2 brand new Athearn DRG&W EMD GP 50’s from discounttrainsonline.com only three years ago…a locomotive never owned by the DRG&W…chuck
Sorry, but that hole (the radiator water sight glass window, to be precise) is found on the Athearn GP38-2, GP40-2, GP50, GP60 and SD40-2.
Among Athearn models, the square dynamic brake section is unique to the GP60. If your shell is in fact a GP50, it either got that hatch after it left Athearn, or someone at the factory goofed.
The Athearn “late GP50”, by the way, uses the GP50 DB hatch on the GP60 shell.
This is a GP 50
This is a GP-60
notice there is no sightglass on the GP60 and the dynamic brake is no where near the shape of the GP 50 and the model
and here is a GP 40
The certainly is no sight glass on that GP60, but we’re talking models, and Athearn’s Dash-2’s and GP60 all have that opening, because it’s commonly found on the prototype.
As to the DB hatch, I thought that the photo you posted showed the boxy hatch, which is as I said unique to the GP60 among Athearn models.
I can’t speak to the GP40 photo, since as far as I can tell it has nothiong whatever to do with our discussion. It’s purty, though…
Well Athearn never did put really good details in their models…the Genesis is getting better but they still have a long way to go…Chuck
What road numbers did those supposed RioGrande GP50s come lettered as?
Of course Athearn only offered 2 of the 3 GP60s they can’t offer everything available and still make profit.
Josh
the Athearn model i purchased is at www.discounttrainsonline.com under HO and Athearn on page 11… it’s been three years ago and the DRG&W is no longer listed for sale…all they have left is Santa Fe, BN / SF and BN…I believe the road # was in the 5000 's but the exact # I don’t remember because i’ve slept since then and repainted it in UP scheme…
chuck