Story and Photos by Harry K. Wong
Though General Electric entered the domestic locomotive market in the 1960s with its “Universal” series diesels beginning with its U25B, it wasn’t until the debut of the “DASH-7” line in September 1976 that GE would deliver a more reliable offering that could truly rival its competition from General Motors. With more than 1,100 units produced through 1986, the GE C30-7 was the greatly improved successor to the six-axle 3,000hp U30C. While EMD’s SD40-2 would still outsell its GE counterpart, the C30-7 became the cornerstone from which General Electric would later assert its dominance over EMD in the North American locomotive market. Like the SD40-2, the C30-7 would find its home on long-distance heavy-haul freight assignments, from coal trains to priority intermodal and everything in between.
Now available from Rapido Trains are highly-detailed state-of-the-art HO scale renditions of the General Electric C30-7 in multiple road-specific variations. Depending upon the prototype, each model includes either Rockwell or Adirondack trucks, different headlight, horn, radio antenna configurations, anticlimber designs, pilot faces, and other details where appropriate.
All models include separately applied wire-formed grab irons, dead-straight metal handrails with plastic stanchions, and arguably the best m.u. hoses available today in HO scale — which are cast in a highly realistic near-scale-diameter cross section durable enough to withstand the rigors of the most ham-handed operators. Beneath the side sills one will find air and electrical conduits, a bell, and two air reservoirs fully plumbed with metal wire piping to the appropriate air dryers and air filters as seen on the prototype.
Each truck also provides a maximal level of detail including generator housings with flexible rubber cables sprouting forth from the appropriate axles for wheelslip control and to the speedometer, air lines to each brake cylinder, a brake chain under the engineer’s side sill and sanding lines on all trucks to the outboard axles. On the bottom face of each truck are traction motor details encasing each drive axle in high relief. Instead of a monolithic black gearbox blocking the way, this new gearbox design provides a vastly more realistic see-through side silhouette visible from trackside just like the prototype.
With a large fleet of GE power including 100 U36Cs already on the roster, the Santa Fe was an eager customer for the improved C30-7. Between 1977 and 1982, Santa Fe amassed a fleet of 157 C30-7s over seven different orders. Rapido’s rendition of ATSF 8025 represents a unit in as-delivered configuration from the second group of 30 C30-7s (8020-8057) arriving on the railroad between May and June 1978.
A plethora of road-specific equipment is evident on Rapido’s rendition of Santa Fe 8025. Most prominent on the roof of the cab is a working Stratolite flasher beacon sitting alongside a Leslie S-3 airhorn with a boxy ground plane for the Sinclair radio antenna along the back. Oddly, the top of the nose on these Santa Fe models was painted yellow instead of having a blue anti-reflective panel ahead of the front center cab windows. The front pilot features a low-cut snowplow and GE-style coupler cut lever overshadowed by a large front anticlimber per the prototype. Burlington Northern C30-7s also share the same setup on the front pilot…
