Product Review HO ScaleTrains SD45 SP
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- čas přidán 3. 08. 2024
- The SD45 was one of the iconic locomotives of the 1960s, 70s, and beyond. This HO scale version from ScaleTrains is loaded with detail. The model train is equipped with DCC and sound, and has great lighting effects. Dan reviews the Southern Pacific version of this model, complete with SP light package and other road-specific details. This HO scale diesel has photo etched radiator fans, a detailed interior, plenty of plumbing under the sill, and more! If you're a fan of big EMD diesels or the Southern Pacific, you won't want to miss this one!
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Hi Daniel. Wow the moment you opened the package that's the first thing i caught quickly. Minor damage on this diesel engine. As your viewer i took points off! That's an expensive product to receive these defects. The couplers are a challenge on their heights on a lot of brands. Your review is on the right track. The main thing you modified this very well. I'm happy as long as you're happy with your engine. Thanks for presenting this .
Harold (CN) railroad.
I'm glad you liked the review. Coupler height does seem to be a recurring issue with a lot of models, unfortunately. Thanks for watching!
thanks for the note, dan !!! my operator cefx sure is smooth !!! will consist it with s. trains csx gevo and sponge bob sd 40-3 and see these units stayed in their cefx colors until about 2016 so it will match nicely with the other 2 engines. busy day today.... work on some rochester southern hoppers, get ready for early morning turkey hunting tuesday at 5 am, do some bench engineering for where certain buildings are going to go on the layout, then have a few cold beers while running trains later tonight !!! i guess you figured out i am retired now ( 34 years dept.of energy).... oh yeah, one last thing... will be watching hilites of my bills big win over chiefs last night which means more cold beer, danny !!!! blessings to you !!! denny
ScaleTrains is making some nice locomotives these days. It seems like a good percentage of my recent purchases have come from there (it helps that they've been making some 1990s appropriate SP power, which is exactly what I need). It sounds like you're busy having fun, which is great. Thanks for watching!
Nice Ovation guitar on the wall. I love guitars and trains.
I got that one a few years ago, and it's my newest guitar. I really like it. I have another Ovation but the new one has a deeper, fuller tone and stays in tune better. Thanks for watching!
@@DanielCortopassi I have had several Ovations over the years. My favorite was a beautiful Ovation Elite. Please check out my channel, lots of videos of my layout and a few guitar tunes
I have my undec Seaboard style engines now. I am boggled at the number of parts that go on these engines. Well, that will make painting a lot easier. Mine are going to be Texas and Pacific units. I know, T&P never had SD45s. On my layout, T&P acquired MP, so Swamp Holly Orange lives on! I will definitely be using this video for additional reference when I build my models. Thanks so much.
"What if" scenarios can make for some fun modeling. I am sure there are a lot of parts. I have a few undecorated Genesis units that came partly disassembled and wow... they have a lot of parts. I can imagine ScaleTrains is similar. Thanks for watching!
Quality control failed here...
It seems to happen a lot. Thanks for watching!
Good job scale trains
Thanks for watching!
Great review. I'm a little disappointed in the number of things that came wrong or broken on your locomotive. The coupler height issue is just unacceptable. Looks like you squared everything away as usual. I wish they could send you a partial refund since you had to fix so many issues.👍
I'll bet mandatory partial refunds for defects would make manufacturers address the quality issues real quick! Haha. Thanks for watching!
Adding how you fixed the issues, especially the coupler height, is a fantastic addition to these videos. The only issue my SD45 had was a roller bearing detail popped out of the truck.
I'm glad you like the RIP Track segment, and that your model didn't have as many issues. Thanks for watching!
Another honest review video, thanks! I'm curious to what level of defect/damage is ST willing to do an exchange. I ask because there are people who might not have the skill or ability to do certain repairs themselves. Or, someone like myself with a disability that has some limitation in hand dexterity, as well as those with arthritic fingers, would have a harder time doing the fixes. Hopefully this was a fluke! But like you said, given the expense one would expect this to be rare.
I haven't contacted ScaleTrains to ask about exchanging anything, so I'm not sure. So far most of the issues I've had with their models have been minor and fixable. I really would like to see ScaleTrains and other higher-end model makers go that extra %5 though, and make the models defect free. Thanks for watching!
Excellent review Daniel as always. Glad you demonstrated how you fixed the coupler height issue cause that's exactly what I needed lol. Got a question. It's all cool to take points but what about giving points on certain things like you described it pulled like an SD45 and other good points you described about the engine I think ought to garner positive points added to the overall scoring of the engine. I understand the price we pay for quality these days and I'm with you on that aspect of the equation. Good review 👍
I'm glad you liked the review. A number of people have suggested adding points, but I'm not sure how that would work, or how to make it work in a way that remains fair and objective. One of my goals is to keep the reviews as consistent as possible and to apply the same standards across the board. Thanks for watching!
Fantastic review Dan! Ever since Scaletrains’s SP SD45s started shipping out to customers I knew you would eventually review this.
I couldn't resist an SP SD45, even though this one is a little too old for my 1990s time period. I think I'll wait and see if ScaleTrains does any SD45Rs before getting any more. Thanks for watching!
@@DanielCortopassi Did you buy any of the recent GRIP rebuilds that came out?
@@NishnaValleyRailVideos Yes! Several of them. I am working on a review.
I grew up in Davis CA watching these SP SD45's coming through town and they've always been iconic to me. Naturally, I wanted a few of these. I received 2 of the ScaleTrains SP SD45's recently.
When I saw your noting the damaged plow and missing step, I checked mine quickly and it looks like all the steps are in place. I am looking forward to ScaleTrains doing the more common SP SD45's with the L-shaped windshield and high mount brake cylinders. Yes, the later SP SD45's came with rear plows. I have some Athearns that are detailed with the rear plow.
When I saw you point out the read wrap on the rear hood, I looked up photo's on the Espee.railfan.net site. Looks like the wrap could extend a little further. I'm surprised this was not better because an SP fan is one of the ScaleTrains founding members.
The paint issue would be a little difficult to fix. I'll probably skip the upcoming ScaleTrains SD45 releases unless they do some SD45Rs, which are better suited to my 1990s era. I'm glad your models weren't damaged. Thanks for watching!
@@DanielCortopassi Well, they did some SD45R's. They are a little new for me but I bought one anyway. I also have all 3 of the Athearn SD45R's which were from the earlier batch of rebuilts in the 74xx series.
I have been searching CZcams for a good week waiting for this review. Mine arrives Thursday so I am hoping it's issue free, but I did ask them to inspect it first since my Dash 9 had a plow and MU cable broken off and have been waiting for parts. Awesome review nonetheless and thank you for showing the coupler fix!
You're welcome. I hope your model arrives in good shape. Thanks for watching!
An honest and very real review about the 'average purchase' by the 'average Joe' model railroader. Thank you! Is ScaleTrains listening and taking notes? Or are they now giving you the evil eye glare?
When it comes to ACTUAL coupler height "design", "initial measurement", "test run and production execution", and "re-measurement for constructive feedback/adjustment/quality control", most manufacturers just guess. Their recurring philosophy and guiding light for this simple issue is "close enough is OK" since 97.5% of the modelers out there "really DON'T care" as long as the hanging trip pin doesn't snag.
Need proof?
Many other "deliberately-kept-nameless" online reviews (for ScaleTrains' SD45) don't even mention coupler height, and EVERY single one of their viewers give their 'rivot counter' raves and thumbs up. Zero mention for being dead-on for KD coupler head height! Say again -- zero. Thank you for being in the 2.5% and leading the way!! Give future model design teams 2 decades -- they'll eventually get it right for this invisible and BASIC feature, and 'Joe model railroader' shouldn't have to compromise by "settling for" an underset shank KD coupler. Not at this price point.
I have learned from experience that coupler height is important, which is why I test for it among other things. I agree that this is a very basic thing, yet almost every model I review fails on this point. Some people rave about models that are highly detailed and/or are of a prototype that hasn't been available before in a highly detailed model. That's fine, but having a lot of detail doesn't excuse a model from having couplers at the wrong height or incorrect wheel gauge. And the couplers on this model were really low. If ScaleTrains couplers had trip pins, they would be catching on everything. Thanks for the comments and for watching!
After seeing this video I am glad I cancelled my order for the SP version! You are exactly right about a model this expensive should have nothing wrong with it!
I would really like to see a little more effort in the quality control area on models like this. I guess as the number of parts increases on a highly detailed model, the odds of any one of those parts falling off also increases. Having to glue the step back on doesn't bother me as much as the way-too-low couplers. Thanks for watching!
I like SD45s but this was a bit disappointing. Think you should have hit another 5 points for all the work on the couplers. Good video Dan
Like I said in the review, I was tempted. Fixing the coupler height on this model was more work than I usually have to do on a diesel. Thanks for watching!
Great review as usual. Looks like a nice model. But those couplers, though....
These were really low. I kind of wish ScaleTrains would revamp their draft gear box and just use Kadees. Thanks for watching!
Just a pointer, on the Loksound V5 locomotives, they have 3 braking functions, which includes independent, train brake, and emergency brake. The only thing they do is when you hit the independent is it effects the deacelleration CV value that you have programmed in, the only time you will notice it function is when you have a very high decel CV programmed in, and when you bring the throttle to 0 it will make it will make a brake valve sound and slow faster, train brake makes it slow even faster, with the sound of an Automatic brake valve being put into reduction and emergency will make the emergency blow off sound and then slow down and stop regardless of speed setting.
So I’m all reality there really isn’t anything wrong with programming, it’s how ESU has it set up.
Thanks for the great information. I have to admit I haven't had the time to delve into all the new features of the LokSound 5 yet. I'll keep it in mind for the future. Thanks for watching!
Great fair review into the point
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for the review, I did buy the 8837 only but won't be purchasing anymore until the sd45r's arrive as none of these units fit into my 1990/96 timeframe...
I am in the same boat, since I also model the 1990s. I got this one without a number because I want to research a little more and find a unit that lasted at least into the mid-80s. Thanks for watching!
outstanding review.
Thanks for watching!
Dan, love your video reviews. I'm also a huge fan of SP myself. Like you i also check details to see if they are correct. I model 1986 to 1996 before the merger.
I'm glad you liked the review. This SP engine is a little before my 1990s era, though a few of their SD45s from early orders lasted into the 1980s. Thanks for watching!
Thanks, Dan. Usually ScaleTrains provides a good product but you may have caught a bad one. Regrets. But thanks for telling it like is. 🚂
I think they make a good product overall. There have been small quality control issues with many of the trains I've got from them. Most aren't too hard to fix, thankfully. Thanks for watching!
Excellent product review of the Scaletrains EMD SD45 model, you make interesting observations with the coupler height issues & broken detail parts. I plan to pick up an SD45 before the year closes out, great video review content, Tom.
Thanks for watching!
Great review Dan!
Thanks for watching!
Great review. I know you asked in the past whether viewers would be OK with fewer product reviews from you going forward; if they are less frequent, but are (as here) a few minutes longer and concern a buzzed-about model of an important and interesting prototype, I'd be totally happy and I'd bet many other viewers would, too. You have a strong eye for detail, and I'm always interested to see whether a model gets SP details right in your opinion.
I'm glad you liked the review. As I've already talked about, I'm going to do fewer of them going forward. I will continue to strive to be as thorough as possible in the reviews I do. I have curbed my spending quite a bit, but if anything will fit into my 1990s SP theme, then it's probably more likely to get purchased and reviewed. Thanks for watching!
I always love seeing a new SP model with the correct lights and stuff but a lot of the broken parts and the couplers are really disappointing.
Lack of quality control is really disappointing, especially in expensive models. Thanks for watching!
Seems like every large model company, aside from maybe rapido has tons of QC issues
I feel like specifically Athearn and Scaletrains have let quality control have, well, no control of quality. Athearn has improved dramatically in the past years, while Scaletrains just gets worse. Issues like these are inexcusable, and I feel like scaletrains needs to up their game. If other companies like Walthers and Atlas can make models that come in one piece, why can't scaletrains? That said, great review. Other reviewers who are paid to do positive reviews don't mention the issues. Your reviews help me and other modelers, unlike people who just praise items. Thanks for making real, quality reviews!
Thanks! With one exception so far, I've bought all the models I've reviewed on this channel. I agree that quality control is a big issue with expensive models. Just having sound and a lot of detail doesn't mean the model gets a pass if it falls down in other areas. I am not doing as many reviews these days, but I will continue to be as thorough as possible when I do. Thanks for watching!
Great review Dan
Thanks for watching!
dan... i have this model and i have actual numbers in the number boards but it looks like your model did not.... minus points here ?
I bought my unit un-numbered, so there are no numbers in the number boards or painted on the sides. ScaleTrains did offer these already numbered as well, and those units would have the numbers in the number boards. I will need to use some decals to number my unit at some point. Thanks for watching!
That is amazing how the capacitor circuit can keep it running for a second even when it's taken off the track! Their models would be good to use for people who have dirty or defective track..lol. I think ScaleTrains has their horn volume too low by factory default, I can barely hear it on factory default settings (complete opposite of BLI lol)
The capacitor circuit is good for keeping models from stalling. Speaker choice and placement can have a huge effect on volume. I agree that I like the horn to be fairly loud, while keeping other sounds fairly low. If you have a lot of sound equipped engines running at once, the diesel noise can get irritating. Horns only get used periodically, and not all engines sound the horn at the same time, so having them louder is good. Real train horns can be heard for a long distance, so it's also prototypical. Thanks for watching!
Very cool locomotive and great review! Just from curiosity, have you ever given a model a red signal?
I don't believe he has. The lowest rating he gave was a yellow signal about 68/100
I think he did for some SP passenger cars
EpicCSX 65/100, for Golden Gate HO SP pax cars, Scaletrains N carbon hopper, and BLI N cryogenic tank cars
@@amtraklover yeah, it was for the passenger cars
Yeah, the $90 passenger cars
I purchased my SP SD45 #8837 with DCC and sound from Scaletrains. When it arrived I removed it from the packaging, placed it on my desk to inspect it and I noticed one of the bearing caps had fallen out of the engineer's side frame. I had to glue it back into place with some slight sanding. Fortunately, so far I haven't found anything else wrong with it yet.
mine had the same issue, front bearing cap on the engineer side fell out .
I'm glad your model arrived in better shape. Thanks for watching!
The review was awesome. It's sad that for these high end engines to have all these discrepancies. The last brand new engine I bought was the T1. An awesome engine outwardly, but had several short comings inwardly. I've read a few articles about how these manufacturers cannot bring production back to the states citing that high skilled labor is not readily available. A laughable excuse. Also stating that the company would have to retool everything, as the plant "owns" the molds (or is it mould?) I get it. Cheap labor, avoiding taxation, no osha to worry about, no unions, no epa requirements, and so on. But I digress. Keep these reviews coming! All of them are great!!
For the money they're charging, I'd at least like to see manufacturers pay a little more attention to quality control. Thanks for watching!
Great review Dan! My step came off after I tapped it accidentally very slightly so it probably was not glued well to begin with. Thanks for showing the repair technique on that and the couplers too. I bought the Chicago and North Western and the Seaboard Coast Line SD45's and am very happy with them. To me if they run quietly and smoothly and have LokSound 5 with capacitors, then the battle is mostly won. They are beautiful looking too. I wish other reviewers would do like you did and comment on quietly the locomotive runs without the sound on. That is really important to me. I returned an Atlas Classic RSD 4/5 that was just so noisy it was unacceptable. I am guessing their Classic series has different motors and/or gears? Their Master series are quiet. I have an InterMountain GP10 almost as bad. Hopefully the InterMountains I have on order won't be as loud. Regards, NS.
I agree that a good quality locomotive should run fairly quietly when the sound is off. Most of my HO locomotives are sound equipped, and when I have a bunch of them in the same place, the noise can get obnoxious. For that reason I usually turn the diesel engine sounds down quite a bit, so it's important that the engine's aren't making mechanical noise, too. The older Atlas RSD 4/5 was made by Kato, and Kato engines usually run very quietly. I inherited one of those from a friend and it's pretty quiet. The newer ones are made in China. I don't have any of those so I can't really say, though I have a lot of other Atlas engines (mostly Master) that run quietly. Sometimes gear noise can be reduced by using a very small amount of plastic-compatible grease on the gears. Thanks for watching!
Thanks Dan for the very useful review. I will be modeling SP´s Portland Brooklyn yard in the mid ´70s, which is near the neighborhood where I grew up, and I remember often seeing SD45s come in hauling trains from the south, so getting 1 or 2 of these is high on my priority list. A few questions if I may. Do you know approximately when the capital ¨SP¨ lettering was added to the front of SP´s bloody nose locomotives? And what is the brand and type of track that you are using in this review? Is it Kato Unitrack? It looks good. Would it be suitable for yard operation, or best for mainline? Thanks.
I'd have to do some research to determine when SP starting putting initials on the nose vs. the unit number. Judging from photos the practice started sometime in the early 1970s. Of course many units continued in service for some time after that without initials. The track I use for the running tests is Kato Unitrack, yes. It's good track. I use it mostly for temporary setups because it's easy to reconfigure and reliable. You could use it for a layout, either yard or mainline. The main drawback to using track like that for a permanent layout is that there isn't any flex track, so you're kind of stuck with the straight and curved sections that they sell. Depending on what you're trying to do, that may or may not be an important limitation. Thanks for watching!
Awesome Review Dan! There is no excuse for any flaws on this locomotive. I am give this Scaletrains loco an "F". Sorry about the hard grade. My other colleagues said to avoid this model. I was going to purchase the Pennsylvania version. I changed my mind on the last minute. In fact, I purchased the 4th run of their GEVO(Tier 4) model in CSX "Spirit Of Ravena" in HO scale(Rivet Counter). I had to send the loco back to the manufacture twice. The first time with no working ditch lights and the second time with no rear head lamps. They ended up replacing the decoder and rewired the rear lamps. I love their locomotives. However, expect dings and mishaps on those units in the future. As far as my hard grading on that GEVO, I would of gave it a "C+".
I don't know if it would have applied to your GEVO, but most of the models I've seen from ScaleTrains use contacts instead of wires to get power to ditch lights. I have a C44-9W that had that issue, one ditch light was out. It turned out that just pressing the shell down a little tighter on the chassis fixed it. I can see the logic of doing this from a manufacturing point of view, as I'm sure it's easier to put something together without having to worry about tricky wiring. From a reliability point of view, though, it's bad. When I kitbash or redo lighting in one of my own locomotives, I almost always junk any factory contacts and use wire. Thanks for watching!
Yep! I agree about that one. I have a buddy out in Marion, Ohio who recommends replacing certain stock/OEM wires on some of their units(early SD40-2 's). It is all definitely worth it!
The Operator version of the SP units isn't anywhere as nearly accurate: 8845 is from class EF636-2 and should have 4 fuel fillers, an L-shaped windscreen, two "high and outside" brake cylinders, no rear number boards and pilot plows front and rear, plus the standard SP lighting package. As supplied the model is a generic SD45, with separate front screens, 4 low brake cylinders and no plows. I accept that it is a cheaper model, but Scaletrains could at least have used the Rivet counter shell, even if they omitted the lighting features. As for the coupler issue, I swapped a pair of underset Ka-Dees in. If I buy any more, and I'm an SD45 fan, I'll either buy the Rivet Counter model or the Athearn one... Meantime, I have to decide whether to re-decal it in speed lettering and renumber it as an SD40M or add aftermarket light castings and cut the cab framing to get the L-shaped windscreen.
I got one Operator freight car a while back from ScaleTrains and decided that I didn't want any more. Too many inaccuracies. It's one thing to leave off detail, quite another to have to start cutting up a model to correct things that shouldn't need correcting. Good luck with your SD45. Thanks for watching!
I ordered several of these and like you one of mine did have the same right rear step well damage. The box as well as outer package were completely unscathed, suggesting that the damage was possibly done at the factory, which is a shame. I've now heard numerous reports from other modelers about this including you on the SD45's as well as with the C40-9s suffering from this. I hope they are a little more careful in the future since these are really nice models otherwise...thanks for the review.
I've had several models from ScaleTrains come with small parts broken or detached. It's disappointing, especially since they're really nice models. With so many small parts, the odds of something coming loose increase, but I'd still like to see a little better quality control. Thanks for watching!
Great Review I always enjoy them wanted to ask Sir what Styrene Glue do you use thank ya Sir... Allen D
For liquid styrene cement I've been using Same Stuff from Micro-Mark. I used to use the one Walthers put out but it was discontinued. Thanks for watching!
Do you have any videos on your own personal layouts?
The only layout I have right now is a 5 foot long HO display / switching module. Once I can get going on my Donner Pass layout, I'll be doing a lot of video about it. Thanks for watching!
Am I just dumb or something, but why does this engine have 4 MU cables not 3 on the frond and the rear?
This is an as-built SD45. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think at one time they used 4 hoses, then went down to three at some point. I don't really know the reasoning. Thanks for watching!
@@DanielCortopassi thanks for the information. Love the content will always be watching.
So sp 7551 would have been one these sd45rs then
Yes, SP's 7400-7500 series SD45s were rebuilt units. Thanks for watching!
At 5:56 it looks like you may also have a missing lift ring at the right-hand rear of the locomotive. ScaleTrains may be able to send a replacement, as they were able to send me a replacement lift ring for my SD40T-2.
I must have missed that. Thanks for noticing!
Since this is an unnumbered locomotive, I’d like it if it came with number boards you can install yourself, though I prefer the number boards already installed. But I’d suggest another brand of this model since it’s a dud.
There were clear pieces included, so I think the idea is to put decals on the clear plastic that's already in the numberboard area on the model, then put the clear pieces over them. It's not as easy as if they had pre-numbered inserts for the 8800-8844 series, so you could just pick the one you wanted. Thanks for watching!
Great review but this is a no-go for me. There's no excuse for the defects you encountered.
It's a good model overall, but yes, it is disappointing. Thanks for watching!
You should have just used an off set height coupler and taken 10 points.
I'm not a big fan of offset couplers in HO, just my preference. Thanks for watching!
Hi dan, how’s your layout coming along?
We're still working on the building. It's going slowly because we've also had a bunch of other projects to get done, like our catio. We'll keep everyone updated as things progress. Thanks for watching!
@@DanielCortopassi ooh a catio! Would love to see that in a video!
@@kNo1bdy We actually made a video about it, here on the channel.
@@DanielCortopassi just watched it 👍
Yeah, I'll stick to my Athearn.
185 bucks for all that trouble?
Honestly I find wire/metal handrails and grab irons are better than plastic, they're more durable.
I agree that I prefer metal handrails. As plastic ones go, this model's handrails are better than most. I usually make handrails out of brass wire and solderable stanchions when I build a model that I'm painting myself. Thanks for watching!
Wow yours were smashed. Im sorry
Always disappointing in an expensive model. Thanks for watching!
hola buenas noche muchas gracias por subir el video abrzo grande
Thanks for watching!
For the money scale trains wants for their junk I would have Ben a whole lot harsher
Thanks for watching my review!
Scaletrains’ quality control lets them down yet again. Disappointing to say the least.
It seems to be a recurring theme with a lot of the newer high-detail models we're seeing from a lot of manufacturers. They look great but have small issues. I'd really like to see incorrect coupler height become as rare as out-of-gauge wheels. That alone would be a huge improvement. Thanks for watching!
$274...this is why Model railroading is dying, so over priced. I have run these engines in RL (SP engineer) regular SD45's sucked, ride very bad and truck hunting. Rebuilds done in the 90's were great.
Since I model the 1990s I've become a fan of SP's rebuilds. This model is a little bit of a stretch for my timeline, but I wanted to check it out. Thanks for the comments and for watching!