ALL… just purchased 5 of the new HO Atlas SP and SSW GP40-2’s and have been waiting for these versions since they announced them last year. Up to that time, The only other Atlas power I rostered were some UP and Union Railroad(Pittsburgh) MP-15’s, a few of the GE 8-40CW’s and the DRG&W GP-40-2’s, in all three #'s.
Atlas has always done really nice quality offerings in HO, which is not surprising - they’ve been doing it for a long,long time.
The SP versions I knew would sell out almost immediately and so I had placed my orders early on and was able to get all three numbers offered.
I was not disappointed when opening the box to reveal the SP-specific appliances, light packages, L-shaped Engineers cab window, as ordered, etc.
Atlas is to be commended for what I consider to be their best to date offering in an HO diesel.
The only little nit-pick I had was with the Battery Box doors under the cab, not being ‘split’ doors. I will have to research this detail as it may have been a later change by SP’s shop crews and not as delivered.
Other than that, this model really says ‘SP’ all over it - great Job Atlas.
I’m glad that Atlas is taking the initiative to offer and produce railroad-specific models. The Rio Grande GP-40-2’s were an instant sell out and I’ve had a lot of modelers as me if I was willing to sell them - I could have got my money ten times over by now.
Now… for the bad news.
With all the attention to detail given to the SP/SSW versions, I was a little let down to find that the NS version(which is a modern derivitive)of this locomotive, sorely lacked a very apparent and obvious detail for this paint scheme: the omission of the Ditchlights.
I understand that manufacturing costs and the ability to have interchangable molds i