I saw a pic on facebook CSX equipment updates shared by J.B.Rail photo that grabbed my attention of this CSX #1726. It looks like a SD40 or SD40-2? rebuilt with flared radiators.
Anyone else see it? Wow.
Looks like it maybe a ET23DCM
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So it would not be far fetched for Lionel or MTH to release an appropriate numbered CSX SD40-2 with GE prime mover sounds.
Technically you'd have to retool the radiator area but, could do it.
And while it looks a bit Frankensteinish, I bet efficiency and reliability wise it's great.
it says it now has a 6 cylinder engine!
BTW: on Facebook it is in full CSX paint.
I wonder if 3D printed radiators could just be made and glued on instead of investing in new tooling? I don't see new tooling happening in O scale.
3d printing is great for small numbers but painfully slow for any sort of large scale manufacturing.
The CSX ET23DCM (designated SD23T4 by CSX) is a pretty interesting rebuilt locomotive. The huge radiator does seem too big for the SD40-2 body. I think that CSX and Wabtec should have lengthened the SD40-2 donors' long hoods to make them look more like SD45 long hoods. However, the design has grown on me. With a 6-Cylinder prime mover, the ET23DCM seems like it would be very fuel efficient and eco-friendly, as well as reliable and low-maintenance.
3D printing would be a good idea for someone to make a custom ET23DCM from either a Lionel or MTH SD40-2 (or maybe a 3rd Rail or Atlas version, too).
Here's how I would do it without 3D printing. It would involve cutting off the radiator section of an SD40-2 model and replacing it with a modified SD90MAC radiator section (removable to access the control switches, of course). Then the locomotive would need to be painted in CSX's latest livery.
The one problem of a model of the SD23T4/ET23DCM is that the rear lights are mounted on the rear of the radiator section not on the actual rear of the long hood. If someone custom-builds an SD23T4 model, they could have a contact or plug inside the shell and on the radiator section that the radiator would attach to to get power to the lights.
As for the sounds, how would that be done? Blunami could work, but Soundtraxx doesn't have an accurate 6-Cylinder GEVO Prime Mover sound recording on the decoders. I guess a standard GEVO engine sound could work as it would be the closest thing to the 6-Cylinder engine on the SD23T4.
I actually thought that Scaletrains would make an SD23T4/ET23DCM model in HO and/or N-Scale using their SD40-2 tooling since they make highly detailed locomotives with road-specific details. They have a couple of rebuilt SD40-2 models in their catalog: the NS SD40-2 Admiral Cab units and the CSX SD40-3 "Spongebob Cab" units.
