Photos of New Lionel Rio Grande (or other) SD40T2 tunnel motors?

Looking at the 2018 volume 2 catalog, I didn't see any Rio Grande tunnel motors. Might you have mistaken the Wheeling and Lake Erie ones? They were bought from the Rio Grande and kept their paint scheme.

Terry

They are the tunnel motors in the 2018 volume 1 i think...  it could even be v2 2017.  I dont have the catalogs infront of me...

Found my catalogs...  the tunnel motors being delivered now were in the 2017 volume 2 catalog...

I also would like to see Pictures, especialy the D&RG  

tcripe posted:

Looking at the 2018 volume 2 catalog, I didn't see any Rio Grande tunnel motors. Might you have mistaken the Wheeling and Lake Erie ones? They were bought from the Rio Grande and kept their paint scheme.

Terry

Small detail: W&LE kept the paint scheme, but they repainted them in a darker, more reddish shade of orange. Hopefully Lionel will get the D&RGW color right this time. They said they would, after receiving criticism. Previous Lionel offerings have been closer to the W&LE color.

As an aside, Canadian National is the only Class One still operating tunnel motors.

"Canadian National is the only Class I railroad in North America that is still operating hand-me-down tunnel motors today. CN SD40-3 No. 406, which was constructed as SP SD45T-2 No. 9171 in 1972, leads ore train U717 at Kelsey, Minn."

The rio grande changed orange again in 1982 to 1983, cant recall excact date, i wrote it down somewhere.  That last orange is vivid just like the W&LE orange.

Super O Bob posted:

The rio grande changed orange again in 1982 to 1983, cant recall excact date, i wrote it down somewhere.  That last orange is vivid just like the W&LE orange.

I don't know about that, but the bottom photo is a DRGW GP60 with the regular Rio Grande paint color, and these weren't built until 1990.

In any case, the top photo is a Tunnel Motor taken in June, 1993, at Salt Lake. Certainly looks like a fairly recent paint job. Hopefully the Lionel version of the DRGW Tunnel Motor will look like this and not with the W&LE version of paint. No. 5378 DRGW Tunnel Motor also shown below the W&LE shot.

According to Utah Rails-- On October 29, 1984, the parent company of the D&RGW railroad, Rio Grande Industries, was purchased by the Anschutz Corporation. Several pieces of equipment were refurbished and repainted. The 20 newest locomotives on the railroad, the 17 SD50s (new in September 1984) and the three GP60s (new in May 1990), were delivered in this newest shade. When seen together with the other two shades of orange (the original Aspen Gold and intermediate Kansas City Orange), the later shade is obviously different.

So, based on this, unless the SD40T-2's were repainted (which I'm not aware they ever were) they should ALL have the lighter orange logos-- NOT the Wheeling Orange- 

Thanks jeff...  i dont think RG tunnels were painted.  Just the WLE units resemble that new orange in 1984...

It is more vivid orange, and looks like those WLE units.

My original posting was regarding the post 1963 aspen gold that was to be changed on these new lionels.  

The 3 'orange' colors are:

pre 1963 aspen gold (more like switcher scheme)

Post 1963 aspen gold (more orange color)

And the last 1980s vivid orange color.

Btw, the post 63 color fades out and resembles the pre 63 after alot of time, but you can clearly see deeper orange in the protected surfaces and touchups.

Are the factories that produce Lionel items only able to ship in containers when they have a massive amount of locomotives and cars at the end of a year? 

Andrew

breezinup posted

 

"Canadian National is the only Class I railroad in North America that is still operating hand-me-down tunnel motors today. CN SD40-3 No. 406, which was constructed as SP SD45T-2 No. 9171 in 1972, leads ore train U717 at Kelsey, Minn."

Not true

Ben, he was referring to Class 1 roads only. There are several others out there as well, including NYSW, RJ Corman, and lease companies which use them for their service lines. 

Lionel's first run of RG tunnel motors was way off as you have noticed. I was very unhappy, but solved it by overlaying the pumpkin orange with micro-scale decals, which helped. As I recall, the later pumpkin orange units were purchased from Conrail and were obviously not tunnel motors.

Terry

breezinup post

This is the color orange i hope they use.  This looks close to new, maybe a touch faded.  This is post 1963 aspen gold.

I am worried they use the pre 63 aspen gold, which is far too buff.  It would be fine for a faded engine.

MGA2307 posted:

RJ Corman units

Very nice looking!, are they both powered?

Here is the NEW LIONEL Legacy Rio Grande SD40T-2 loco that I have. 

Andrew 

Falcon Service

A few more images of the NEW Rio Grande SD40T-2 diesel loco.

Andrew

One more image to see the shade of orange. This is as bright and as washed out as possible.

Andrew