Model Railroading > Bowser's new HO CP SD40-2F Red Barn - First Look

I received my preorder of the new Bowser HO SD40-2F CP Red Barn yesterday. #9017. I have a long history with the barn's and they visited CSX's Philly sub many times. I also traveled to Canada on several occasions to see them along with CP's famous Alco's. At one point I even owned Overland's latest run of the Barn's in brass. I had preordered one and I believe I paid $550 many many years ago which was allot of money. A few years later I noticed that they were selling on eBay for twice that amount and I decided to take advantage of the market and sell. It sold for $1125.00. I vowed that if they ever came out in plastic from a reputable company I would buy one as the Cowl units have always had a soft spot for me.

So what are my thoughts? Outstanding. The detailing and paint are excellent. They run silky smooth. Are quite heavy. Excellent lighting including class lights. Mine came with Loksound and that is where I found a problem. The sound output is quite low. So I checked the sound settings and they were set to max sound. I then reset the decoder and that did not make a difference. So I opened her up. The speaker set up is quite well done but the speaker appears to be quite flimsy. I disconnected the speaker and tried a Rail Master Hobbies speaker and the sound output doubled. I am not sure which speaker I will end up using but I'll let you know.

I need to run her on some trains to test pulling capability so will report back. Some pictures for your enjoyment.

Bruce

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More detail shots.

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another round

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Check out those chains on the trucks. That is a first to see it done.

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Inside electronics and that cheapo speaker, unfortunately. It does have a chamber but it can't save it from being tossed.

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That speaker is paper thin. and some of its CP brothers waiting in the rear with a grain train to be united shortly for field trials.

Take care. Bruce Friedman

PS - If you have questions, I will gladly answer them but you need to sign your name(first name is fine) or I will not respond. Thanks.

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That's a fine looking locomotive but I like the Alco's better (:^)

And, you did well on your brass sale!

Dave

OOOh boy, coming soon to a model railroad near me!  (Really near me, I have one on order at Trainworld).  These boys made quite a few appearances on the D&H, and I long ago decided that CP-era models would be allowed on what is otherwise a 1970s vintage operation.

Nice weathering on the Alcos, BTW.

Love the CP and CN red barns, cant wait to see it all weathered up like them sweet Alcos

Thanks for the photos. Pretty extraordinary die work and assembly for the body and details.

While digging around the ESU site for the Lok Sound V4.0 sound decoders I note they are combining 4 ohm speakers with their system. You might try one of ESU's cell phone speakers with their flexible sound box with your barn. I have one in an Atlas S2 which sounds very nice.

Note, the hand brake chain needs to go up into the carbody through the tube above the rear brake cylinder. That is where it connects to the hand brake mechanism. Right now it is just a closed loop. The chain should not go between the traction snubber (looks like a shock absorber) and the truck side frame. There are just some limitations to the size of chain which can be made with traditional methods. Some of the new etched chains might be small enough to make it work.

Alan



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/17 16:41 by fbe.

The ESU speaker is 50321. ESU lists this as an 8 ohm speaker yet Soundtraxx says when using the cell phone speakers with Tsunami sound decoders you should use a pair of them since they are lower resistance speakers.

Perhaps someone can help us out with this.

Bruce -

I have one of the "early" versions on order for my c. 1990 collection, it should look great with Bowser's CP SD40-2s. But given your penchant for keeping your layout "current," how are you going to rationalize a CP SD40-2F? Do you run "retro" sessions where you'd trot this and the MLWs out, along with your Chessie collection?

And I, too, will be interested in solutions for better speakers if as-provided are sub-par.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/17 09:05 by toledopatch.

Damn, just bought these scale trains SD40-2's and now this comes out! The model railroad budget is getting stretched too thin!

Thanks for the photos Bruce.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/17 13:33 by funnelfan.

Could you post pictures of the inside of the shell? Wondering how much more room inside to put a keep alive circuit.

Thanks,

Steve

Thanks Bruce, for letting us know. This is kind of an announcement that they are in. My backside was hurting a few weeks ago and I found out why when I looked at my VISA.

Kind of interesting that companies are now starting to give us real chain but no one has addressed doing something in the tooling for the front (and rear for other models) porch handrails which would see an attachment/hook for some dangly chain to mount on there. Surely this can be done in today's tooling.

I am one who did not sell his OMI Barn but the OMI one is a very nice model.

For those who might be interested, CPR's red barns were the last SD40-2's ever built. CPR, being a loyal SD40-2 GMD customer, wanted yet another order of SD40-s's but could not get them in the original configuration. At that time London was set up for doing wide bodies for CN in the SD50 and 60 range. It became a matter of take it or leave it if you want a SD40-2, it will be in the current car body. The porthole on the front door was not there as delivered but was added roughly five years in (correction welcomed) as a safety measure.

Rick

Ugh, that looks great! And I just bought another Bowser CP SD40-2 and was eyeing an additional one. I may have to liquidate a few things to pay for one of these.

I don't recall seeing any of these down in MD/VA, but I'm sure they could have showed up occasionally. Thanks, as always, for sharing the detailed photos, Bruce!

Dave

Do they run well with Athearn's units (RTR and Genesis)???

Todd

It looks great Bruce and I completely forgot to preorder these. I wonder if they are all spoken for or will some be available for purchase...


Steve

hartrick24 Wrote:
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> It looks great Bruce and I completely forgot to
> preorder these. I wonder if they are all spoken
> for or will some be available for purchase...
>
>
> Steve

Act quickly. They are now on modeltrainstuff.com, but disappearing fast.

tracklight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> hartrick24 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It looks great Bruce and I completely forgot to
> > preorder these. I wonder if they are all spoken
> > for or will some be available for purchase...
> >
> >
> > Steve
>
> Act quickly. They are now on modeltrainstuff.com,
> but disappearing fast.
Thank you tracklight, I just got 2...

Steve