Wow This engine looks just like a SD70ACe. If I buy this I can get it painted UP color and no one will ever know it is not a USD70ACe. Not that I would purchase this one and do that http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280028849971&fromMakeTrack=true
UP owned most of the SD90MACs anyway, so why pretend it is something that it isn’t?
The SD90MAC is longer than the SD70ACe and the trucks are different.
M636C
The SD90MAC isn’t the twin of the SD70ACe’s at all. The length is wrong as are the trucks and internals. If you want to get an SD70ACe why not get the Tower 55 model? It’d be cheaper than the $650 reserve on that brass one and have simmilar tooling. As for the SD90MAC Kato came out with one not too long ago that I’m sure wouldn’t be too hard to find. I can’t say that I care for the UP enough to have one of their engines on my layout, but my Canadian Pacific Kato SD90 is great. Cheers! ~METRO
The UP also runs a few 6000 hp SD90’s. These are brutes but look great and there’s something about having the most powerful locos on your roster that’s appealing.
I have two of the Kato SD90’s, one UP and one undecorated. There are some slight differences in the two but I plan to paint the undec one UP and number it to match a 6000 hp unit. Both run very well and pull a ton. The draw back is space inside the shell. For as large a model as they are, there is remarkably little extra space for decoders, speakers and the like. I did put MRC 1638 mini sound decoders (brillance line) in them last night and they sound and run very well. I had a MRC 350 decoder in the undec one before and the motor did growl a bit, especially at low speeds.
I agree with the Tower 55 suggestion. I have one of their ES44AC’s (it’s UP so that makes it a SD45AccTe)and it runs, looks and sounds great. Doesn’t pull nearly as well as the Kato SD90’s though. Also, Tower 55 is coming out with the SD70Ace’s in the Heritage paint schemes in the Spring and summer of next year (supposedly).
I mentioned in another post I saw the SP Heritage unit with a regular UP SD70Ace and the WP Heritage unit running reversed heading East out of the Roseville yard. That was one sharp consist.
This is what EMD called a Phase II SD-90. It lookes very similar to the 70ACe, but as many have pointed out, it is a totally different aminal.
This is a Phase I SD-90 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=152762
Nice Pic Kevin. My UP model is 8242 the 6000hp units are numbered in the 8500’s I believe.
Tilden
This photo is not a Phase I SD90MAC but rather an SD90MAC “convertable”, or SD9043AC in UP-speak. UP locomotives 8000-8300 something were delivered with 4300hp 710 series engines with the concept of eventually re-engining them with the 6000hp engines. Note the squared-off engine compartment hood and single exhast stack compared with the angled hood and twin stacks of a true SD90.
Phase I: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=103045
Phase II: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=112062
That’s what I meant. Since the only difference in the 4300HP version, and the 6000HP is the section of hood above the engine, I tend to put them in the same “group”. What I was really trying to show was the overall shape, which is different from a Phase II unit.