Excellent review Dan - as usual. Your input is exceptionally valuable since clearly you are one of the high level experts in the field.

I really like this one--neat paint job and extra details. Waiting to see how the train room is coming!!! Thx Dan!

It's interesting that you pointed out the different shades of yellow. As years went on, D&RGW yellow changed from an appen gold to an almost safety orange and as units were touched up at different times, it was minorly noticable. Kudos to ST for modelling this.

Great Review Dan, i do like the Sd40t-2 and everything stands out to me

Looks good Dan, Happy Easter!

Nice. A great review for a truly great model. Thanks for sharing. 🚂

Great review Dan!

Hi Dan, another good review. I primarily model Soo and DT&I , but you are tempting me with this model. I sometimes stray to other liveries when they have nice lighting. I love the Gyro light and class lights on this Rio Grand loco. Have a blessed day.

You Have a really good way of reviewing trains by comparing them to the real ones.

Great review Daniel 👍

I was thinking epic status till the coupler part😕. What a beautiful engine I have two scale trains sd40-2’s CSX and NS and they are great pullers for sure and look great. Great review!

I ordered Rio Grande #5387 along with two other S.P. sd40t-2 units and they all arrived flawlessly. I was extremely surprised. They are absolutely fantastic models. I hope scaletrains continues to produce more in other roads and paint schemes. It would also be cool if they offered their chassis design separately like athearn has done. .

for anybody wanting a more detailed explanation for the purpose of the tunnel motor locomotive: The SD40s and 45s, when in the long donner pass tunnels, would suck the exhaust back into the air intake, causing it to overheat and die. EMD moves the air intake to lower on the body to suck in clean air from the lower part of the tunnel, fixing the problem. Looks like a great model, nice review!

Nice review Dan! This model was practically almost perfect in its state. The truck design and back stripes were great. I just really like front and back painted stripes especially on EMD Geeps and SD’s. Just visually appealing to look at. I would personally have an issue with pieces missing or broken like with 5390’s handle. Models, especially the higher priced, higher quality ones should never be delivered with any amount of damage and or missing parts. I do also kind of nitpick the orange coloring not alining with the proper shading, but like you said this can be fixed through weathering. I’m also not sure why it’s so difficult for these models to be built with the right coupler height, but I can only guess it’s not easy to do. Overall, very good model representation of D&RGW 5390! I am a big fan of tunnel motors in general and would be very delighted if I owned one. I would likely get D&RGW 5371(if it’s in stock)mainly because of it being in preservation. It’s true SP and Rio Grande never had any conventional SD40-2s, but they both did run regular SD45s.

I Love those tunnel motors, I just received My Athearn - SD601 CSX #8774,, I am a proud Papa DCC w/ Tsunami 2 sound

Very nice!! yes, I ordered one of these with my SP pair grabs are loose but sometimes there in the Box

very nice engine, and the couplers are easily fixed!

You know, when I first watched I was a little off put by the seemingly over analysis when it came to detail. It I’ve decided that if anything it’s probably very appreciated by the manufacturer. There work when done well is very appreciated

Damn! I was hoping this unit would get an Epic status!

I agree, coupler height is important. If the car coupled to it is mismatched the other way it could result in the train coming apart, especially if track is uneven. So correct height is important. I got the as delivered DRGW ScaleTrain tunnel motors as I model the late 70s and early 80s. Interestingly, the class light housings were silver as-delivered but most were painted black soon after, and a few were painted to match the stripes, yet the 1986+ PTC version still has silver housings. -5 points? This is the best HO SD40T-2 ever made. Kudos ScaleTrains.

Love your videos, but I have to disagree with a fractionally low coupler being worth taking points for yet a completely missing detail part isn't

Emd units especially the sd40s with lok sound v5 tend to be as ear bleeding as the real units I'd lower the volume of the prime mover and raise the volume of the horn up as you said, otherwise they are disruptively loud. Hobby isn't fun when it's bothering other people next to you if your in an apartment or a hedroom is next to the train room

I don't have a good idea for how I'd go about correcting low couplers.. aside filing the mounting pads and pilot opening.. What strategy do you think you'll need to use to fix that problem? (might make a good How To vid..)

Dan, how easy is to adjust the coupler height on these models?

Great review, will you be doing a review of the scale trains SD40-3?

I have an Athern blue box, undecorated DC, one of these. Only been opened and looked at by myself and then put back in the box. Never been used

Love the video too...... but a missing part doesn't get points off... but a loose shade does? Makes no sense. But those are nits... thanks for the review

Muito bacana

Do another athearn blue box again?

Everyone seems to be ticked off about the couplers. And while I kind of agree with them, I understand everyone has a policy with their models. I personally think if a coupler's difference from the NMRA standard is less than can be fixed by buying a non-center shank coupler, it's negligible. I'm curious whether a model will ever score a 100 on a review of yours. So far, none have.

These units are so close to brass that I can't see why get a brass engine anymore

🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🫶🍻

Couplers low!!? The rear is 'barely noticeable.' Good review, but taking points away for couplers that 90% of modelers wouldn't fault seems ridiculous.