By Railroad Model Craftsman Staff
One of the most requested locomotives by modelers in recent memory has been the EMD SD7/9 series of locomotives. Now Rapido Trains has now answered the call by announcing their intention to produce state-of-the-art highly detailed models of EMD SD7s, SD9s, and Milwaukee Road’s unique SD10 locomotives with road- and era-specific details and paint for HO scale.
Introduced in 1951, the EMD SD7 was Electro-Motive’s first foray into providing a six-motor diesel-electric road switcher. With its weight spread out over six axles instead of just four, the SD7 could serve over branchlines with lightweight infrastructure unlike its four-axle sister the GP7. In 1953, the SD9 succeeded the SD7, finding even more customers with 471 examples built for railroads in North America, and 44 more finding homes overseas. The SD9 was almost externally identical to the SD7, but featured an upgraded 567C prime mover, different class light locations and stepwell configurations. Both the SD7s and SD9s served for decades, with many being rebuilt in the 1970s and 1980s by many roads. The Milwaukee Road in particular, modernized 21 units from its fleet of SD7s and 9s by adding Horst paper air filters, four-stack exhausts and a low short hood to improve reliability and visibility for crews.
Each Rapido model will offer road-specific details for each model variant, separately applied factory-installed grab irons and handrails, Illuminated LED headlights, white class lights and beacons (where appropriate), detailed cab interior, correct fuel and water tank arrangements per road, multiple stepwell configurations with see-through etched steps, high short hood or modified ‘chopnose’’ short hood where appropriate, road- and era-specific headlight/warning light arrangements, multiple dynamic brake configurations, phase and road-specific fan configurations and more.
Road names for this first release will include SD7s for Southern Pacific (Black Widow – two versions), Bessemer & Lake Erie, EMD Demonstrator, Rio Grande (Bumblebee). Rapido SD9s will include Baltimore & Ohio (as-delivered blue/yellow), CB&Q (Chinese Red), Burlington Northern (Cascade Green/Black), C&NW (low-nose, rebuilt). SD10s will be offered for Milwaukee Road (orange/black), and depending upon reservations, SOO Line (bandit) and Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern (blue/yellow).
Each locomotive will be offered in both a DC/Silent (21-pin DCC Ready) version for $239.95 each and a DC+DCC+Sound version equipped with ESU LokSound 5 for a suggested $349.95 MSRP.
Rapido Trains, 500 Alden Road, Unit 21 Markham, Ontario L3R 5H5, Canada;1-855-572-6917; www.rapidotrains.com