Model Railroading > Athearn SP SD39's

It sounds like the Athearn SP SD39's are out.  Mine shipped on Friday, so I am told.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/16 14:10 by NYSWSD70M.

My MN&S one just arrived at the dealer too and is on it's way!

Tom Y

The wierd thing is on Athearns website, it lists them as shipping in mid-November.  I happened to be perusing my vendors site and saw them in-stock on Saturday evening so went ahead and ordered one.  It should be on it's way - I received a tracking number.  From the photo's they look pretty SP.

Cheers, Jim Fitch



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/16 06:46 by SPDRGWfan.

Curious on the SP units, where did the SD39's or 38's usually operate?  I don't have the best memory, but it seemed like all I saw were tunnel motors, SD40's, or SD45's.

Nathan

atsf121 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Curious on the SP units, where did the SD39's or
> 38's usually operate?  I don't have the best
> memory, but it seemed like all I saw were tunnel
> motors, SD40's, or SD45's.

When they were new they were assigned to the Bakersfield-Tehachapi freight pool and spent several years working the mountain. Also were used as local power on the Lone Pine Branch between Mojave and Lone Pine, CA. 

Even their later years were spent in California, don't think they strayed very often.

Ryan

Yep...they pretty much called Califoria home, though they did get offline occasionally in their prime.  I did stumble across a photo of one working offline on the Rock Island(!) somewhere back east.  In their later years they stayed close to home working LA Basin locals ("Haulers" in SP-speak) and heavy switching.  The last two units to see service, SP 5298 and 5316, finished out the SP SD39 era working as heavy switchers at Long Beach ICTF.  

Edit to add: As for straight SD38s, SP never had any.  They did buy six SD38-2s however, and were set up to operate as heavy switchers at West Colton yard, where they've worked ever since.  

Cajon92 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> atsf121 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Curious on the SP units, where did the SD39's
> or
> > 38's usually operate?  I don't have the best
> > memory, but it seemed like all I saw were
> tunnel
> > motors, SD40's, or SD45's.
>
> When they were new they were assigned to the
> Bakersfield-Tehachapi freight pool and spent
> several years working the mountain. Also were used
> as local power on the Lone Pine Branch between
> Mojave and Lone Pine, CA. 
>
> Even their later years were spent in California,
> don't think they strayed very often.
>
> Ryan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/16 10:24 by SP_8299.

An interesting note regarding the SP SD39's is that the late Karl Ragoza used them as demonstration platforms for his
varied collection of historic locomotive horns. At that time in the mid 1980's, the 5300s were assigned to West Colton and
worked a lot on LA Haulers.

5300, 5301, and 5302 got Nathan M5's as I have videos of them, however Karl placed Nathan M3's and P5's in addition to Leslie S5T's and
even single note Leslie A-200s on the other units as he was often a crew member on the local's the locomotives powered, and could keep a
close watch on his unique horns!  Karl even had a rare Handcock air whistle on one of the SD39's!

Your new Athearn unit is going to come with the standard SP Nathan P3 horn, but you might want to switch it out for an M5 or single note
horn as a recognition of SP trainman Karl Ragoza who has a UP location named for him at the location he had a fatal heart attack and died.  

Regards, Jim Evans

atsf121 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Curious on the SP units, where did the SD39's or
> 38's usually operate?  I don't have the best
> memory, but it seemed like all I saw were tunnel
> motors, SD40's, or SD45's.
>
> Nathan

I did check and some of them did wander northern California and across Donner Pass occasionally.

Thanks for the info guys, guess I need to add an SD39 to my wish list. I'm modeling Northern California, still acquiring things like the rebuilt SD40's to build the main part of my fleet.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> atsf121 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Curious on the SP units, where did the SD39's
> or
> > 38's usually operate?  I don't have the best
> > memory, but it seemed like all I saw were
> tunnel
> > motors, SD40's, or SD45's.
> >
> > Nathan
>
> I did check and some of them did wander northern
> California and across Donner Pass occasionally.

But they were usually quickly captured and sent back to LA to complete their sentence!

Not after 1976. BK-Tehachapi pool was broken up

I stopped by Train Shop Santa Clara today and picked up my two SP SD39's. I like them, they run well and look good. I will chance the speakers for the TDS SuperSonic Small Speaker which sound much better. Great model, I like it.