Power to battle the Wasatch: The distinctive Electro-Motive SD40T-2 in D&RGW livery will be a featured locomotive on the upcoming Train Simulator Soldier Summit route!
Designed to perform in the mountains and haul
heavy tonnage, the Electro-Motive SD40T-2 was a perfect fit
for the Rio Grande, as Gary Dolzall reports
Electro-Motive’s SD40-2 was, hands-down, one of the most successful diesel locomotives ever to go to work on North America’s rails. In a previous two-part feature article, Engine Driver told the story of the landmark SD40-2 (and its predecessor, the SD40). Now, with Rio Grande’s Soldier Summit route in development for Train Simulator, it’s a perfect time to take a look at a unique member of the SD40-2 family – the SD40T-2 “Tunnel Motor” – that will be the featured freight-hauler on the upcoming route.
When it debuted in January 1972, the standard model Electro-Motive SD40-2 represented an evolutionary advancement over its immediate predecessor, the EMD SD40 (which dated to 1966). As part of Electro-Motive’s new “Dash 2” line (which also included models GP38-2, SD38-2, GP40-2, and SD45-2), the 3,000-horsepower SD40-2 looked very much like its predecessor – the major visual difference being the Dash-2’s high-adhesion (HT-C) trucks and slightly greater length. But with its new truck design and advanced electronics (including enhanced wheel-slip control), the SD40-2 improved adhesion by approximately 20 percent compared to its predecessor.
The SD40-2 would prove itself a quintessential and efficient heavy-hauler, which made it ideal for numerous North American railroads that had work to do in mountainous terrain. One such railroad was Southern Pacific, which had displayed a robust appetite for the SD40s big sister, the SD45, purchasing more than 300 of the 3,600-horsepower units, along with 89 SD40s. With its many tunnels and snow sheds atop Donner Pass and other mountain routes, SP had encountered problems with its big diesels not cooling effectively since the radiators and cooling fans were atop the locomotive carbody where hot exhaust swirled in the tunnels. The solution appeared in February 1972, when SP began taking delivery of the first of nearly 250 SD45T-2 locomotives. The “T” in the designation stood for “Tunnel Motor,” and the units featured a new design with the cooling air intakes at frame level and a boxy radiator section above.
This new design proved effective for the big SD45T-2, and so it could also be applied to the SD40-2, and in the summer of 1974, Southern Pacific (and subsidiary Cotton Belt) began amassing a roster of 237 SD40T-2 Tunnel Motors. Another road entirely accustomed to the rigors of mountain railroading – the Rio Grande – also was attracted to the Tunnel Motor design (after all, D&RGW had nearly 30 tunnels on its climb of the Rockies’ Front Range alone). Faced with a need to both replace older motive power and handle rapidly increasing tonnages of coal, the D&RGW would, between 1974 and 1980, place five orders for EMD SD40T-2s totaling 73 units. Accordingly, the SD40T-2 would become the dominant locomotive on the fabled Rio Grande during the final decade of the railroad’s independent existence.
Dressed in Rio Grande’s classic black-and-orange freight livery, with “zebra stripes” on their noses, with “Rio Grande” emblazoned on their hoods in large speed lettering, and wearing D&RGW road numbers 5341-5413, the SD40T-2s went to work system-wide on the railroad, working the Front Range out of Denver, battling Tennessee Pass, toting coal off the Craig Branch, or lifting coal and mixed tonnage over Soldier Summit. Rio Grande’s Tunnel Motors could be found on the point of freights and also regularly served in helper duty from locations such as Minturn, Colorado on Tennessee Pass and Helper, Utah on Soldier Summit.
It was, of course, the destiny of both the Rio Grande (which merged into Southern Pacific in 1988) and SP to eventually be folded into “super six” giant Union Pacific. And thus, UP, which never purchased a new Tunnel Motor itself, gained ownership of the entire fleet of SD40T-2s previously built. Having acquired SP in 1996, Union Pacific continued to employ the SD40T-2s well into the 21st century with the final UP SD40T-2s not officially retired until 2010 (although many had been stored for some time prior).
And yet Union Pacific’s retirement of the SD40T-2s was hardly the end of the story. Being efficient and well-maintained locomotives, SD40T-2s were attractive on the second-hand market and in recent years SD40T-2s have gone to work for railroads including the New England Central; Bessemer & Lake Erie (which is owned by Canadian National); the R. J. Corman Railroads; New York, Susquehanna & Western; and the Wheeling & Lake Erie. In fact, W&LE dresses its Tunnel Motors is a black and orange livery highly reminiscent of that the units once wore on the Rio Grande.
Thanks to Train Simulator, the distinctive and successful EMD SD40T-2 will soon be making a return to Rio Grande rails, too – as a featured locomotive included with the forthcoming D&RGW Soldier Summit route. With its heavy lugging power, railroad-specific details, and D&RGW’s famed livery, the new Dovetail Games Rio Grande EMD SD40T-2 will be perfect for providing the power to tote coal and mixed tonnage and battle the rugged Wasatch Range of the Rockies! – Gary Dolzall
Workhorses of the Rio Grande during the railroad’s final independent years, a trio of EMD SD40T-2s lead by D&RGW 5390 roll east over Soldier Summit at Gilluly, Utah (above). On the remote Sunnyside Branch at Mounds, Utah, another trio of the able EMDs (below) power a local freight. Both photographs by Mike Danneman.
Uncommon indeed was the assignment of Rio Grande SD40T-2 5407 and a sister in helping to hustle a long and heavy Amtrak California Zephyr eastbound at Geneva, Utah in 1988. Photograph by Mike Danneman.
On Train Simulator’s upcoming Soldier Summit route, a pair of SD40T-2s with a westbound manifest meet D&RGW 5409 drawing east into Helper, Utah. Rio Grande rostered 73 SD40T-2s, making the locomotive one of the railroad’s true workhorses. Screenshots by Gary Dolzall. Note: Content illustrated may still be in development.
D&RGW SD40T-2 5382 and a sister lug mixed tonnage westbound past the power generating facility at Castle Gate, Utah, on TS2015’s upcoming Soldier Summit route.
Hauling coal over Soldier Summit has been a staple of D&RGW railroading for decades, and a trio of Rio Grande SD40T-2s lend their 9,000 horsepower to a coal train climbing west out of Helper. No doubt, there’s another set of EMDs working hard as helpers further back in the consist.
Action at Nolan: On the point of a westbound manifest, Rio Grande SD40T-2 5400 and a sister emerge from the west portal of Nolan Tunnel (above), while moments later, a set of SD40T-2 helpers (below) on the same train approach the tunnel’s west portal.
Few small railroad towns in America were ever more aptly named than Helper, Utah, on the east slope of Rio Grande’s Soldier Summit. At Helper Yard on the upcoming Train Simulator Soldier Summit route, two sets of EMD SD40T-2s await the next call to push tonnage over the Wasatch.
The distinctive frame-level air intake and boxy radiator arrangement of EMD’s Tunnel Motor design is apparent on D&RGW SD40T-2 5353 as it rests at Helper, Utah.
SD40T-2s continued to capably serve long after the Rio Grande was merged into Southern Pacific and later Union Pacific. Still dressed and numbered for D&RGW but in the service of Union Pacific, veteran SD40T-2 5371 stood under the yard lights at Helper, Utah in 2007. Photograph by Mike Danneman.
