Testing My MEGA Locomotives Lot from eBay - Will They Start?
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- A couple weeks ago I did a video on how I search for lots of of ho scale locomotives and ended up finding this mega lot of around different twenty engines. The overall condition of them appeared alright but the question was whether or not any of them actually ran.
Almost all of these are gonna need some work before they can run perfectly but many started without a problem which is good to see. Hopefully I can repair the ones which didn't seem to go.
What a kind soul of you to giveaway so much. Wow. Was fun watching to see so many of them run. Looking forward to watching you service them. Thanks for sharing Harrison. 💕😊
Really appreciate that, hopefully they will be enjoyed. I intend to do more giveaways in the future.
@@SMTMainline there is some one impersonating you
@@jayjowers5530 Where?
@@SMTMainline I sent screenshot to your Instagram
My son is 4 and loves your channel. He spends many days “testing” and “fixing” his HO trains. UP are his favorite so he wanted to tell you he loves this lot.
those two large locomotives appear to be EMD DD35's or DD35A's. the DD40 was the Centennial, and was designated DD40X as it was an experimental locomotive that ultimately became an entire fleet. The DD35's are distinguishable from the DD40's by their slimmer noses, whereas the DD40's had full-body-width noses
Thanks for making this, I just love to see old things running/working again. Mainly, of course, trains, and another great video!
Thanks for watching.
Love what you do! Your channel deserves anything that comes its way, and I can’t wait for the next video!
AWESOME LOT!!! Glad to see that most of them were in good working order! Sometimes when you have lots you tend to have some that are not working. But having most of them working, is Awesome! Lots of EMDs!!! Athearns are built like tanks, and are super reliable locos! Can't wait to see more and more projects!
Oh yeah bro they are built like tanks I would agree with you.
Cool video Harrison, looks like you got some good runners there! One interesting note on that first UP SD40-2 you tested, while it is still a blue box, it actually bridges the gap between the original blue box line and the Ready to Roll line (now simply referred to as the Athearn line) as the tooling had several enhancements made. The locomotive as presented featured printed number boards, flexible derlin plastic handrails, and closed front and rear pilots. Mechanically, the drive shafts were changed to a much thinner appearance as well as upgrades to the gearing like what's in the Ready to Roll locomotives. Athearn did not offer these particular blue box locomotives for very long as they would become the RTR line in just a couple of years at which point they also recieved provisions for DCC, so these particular iterations of blue box SD40-2 aren't all that common, in fact, the last time I saw one of these was way back in 1999 sitting on a shelf in a hobby shop (which has long since been closed), only difference was the one I saw was in the Burlington Northern "whiteface" scheme, pretty cool you happened to score one of these unique blue box SD40-2s Harrison! Also with the Ready to Roll UP Dash 9, that sound could also be the headlight wires rubbing on the drive shafts, since these early RTR and Genesis locomotives used 1.5V bulbs, it's actually a pretty common problem for that to happen. Easy fix would be to simply tape the wires to the body which should fix the issue. One other thing is that the 1.5V bulbs are prone to spontaneously burning out, but Athearn does sell replacements on their website or you could also use Miniatronics 1.2mm bulbs as well, although the fit is pretty tight. Lastly, Athearn did bill those 8 axle locomotives as a DD40 and EMD did offer a prototype that was ultimately never built as UP ultimately went with the wide cab DDA40X, so this standard cab version is basically a locomotive that almost was, but never happened!
Thanks for all this info on them!
@@SMTMainline no problem!
Thanks Harrison it was good to see them run. Will be looking forward for the service videos.
Congratulations MrDreaded88!
We Got A Runner!!!! I love those Locomotives!!!🚂🚂🚂 Sounds like you gotten a Sweet Heart Deal on eBay! I'm Glad that you got it Running Smoothly once Again!🚂🚂🚂
Loved the way you share your ability to fix the problems you find. Also love your giveaways.
this is really nice of you to give away some of your locos man, it will really help people who are trying to start a layout and need locomotives. i would if i could want to get one of the union pacific one or the Pennsylvanian or the western Maryland or one of the santa fe ones. glad to see most of them run and it's a nice lot
1:36 The Athearn DD40 has the spartan cab of a DD35A. At the time of production in the early to mid 1960's the 4 axle GP35 introduced EMD's new angled cab that would be standard on all EMD production through the EMD SD50 of the early 1980's. The GP35 was a relatively poor performer despite it's production numbers. EMD was pushing their 16 cylinder 567D prime mover with a turbocharger and it had severe wheel slip problems that were corrected with the 40 line. The original DD35 built by EMD in 1964 was a booster with no cab on either end.
I live in Michigan about an hour from the Canada border, I’ve seen 1 ho scale Canadian loco and it was a 1980s Bachman for $30. I love this channel and you are what got me into model trains and repairing them, non of the projects I’ve tried I got running
Don't let it get you down. It took me countless tries to get my first runner and even then it wasn't perfect, it takes time to figure this stuff out.
I just got my first runner, it was a model power shark nose In the new your central paint scheme. I have a boston and maine shark I'm doing now
Great to see you got a really good deal out of that lot. Congratulations Mr.Dreaded on winning the giveaway!
Hello Harrison. This is Randy in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Love your channel. I’ve always been a fan of model trains. Keep up the good work.
i'll bet you have a tyco 'chattanooga choo-choo'!
Thanks for the comment!
Wow - that looks like a nice haul! I’m jealous of all those UP locomotives. 😄
Great work Harrison. You could have a massive UP lash up.
My son and I pick up old engines at antique stores and bring them home to see if they can still run. I have been surprised to find they almost all do eventually. Sometimes I have to test a non runner up to 4 or 5 times before it will go. A lot of them need some work but I’m truly impressed with our little trains .
I recently in the past two years got a Bachmann Diesel locomotive HO train scale set, is the one where is the BNSF 3001, I love how the train is all wheel drive and can pull about 20 pieces of rolling stock. To go with it, my brother and sister got me three Athearn train cars for Christmas One was a union pacific gondola car, a Herzog gondola car, and a hopper car. Then my papa gave me a lot of HO stuff from when he was a kid. He gave me two locomotives which are a JW Bowler 2-4-0 steam locomotive and a Campbell soup F-Unit diesel locomotive. There was also a good amount of rolling stock made from the company Life-Like. That included some circus rolling stock, a big Campbell Soup box car And a Sampson’s frozen food box car (all of this rolling stock is from the 60’s and 70’s) i’m pretty sure that Campbell soup F-Unit locomotive came with a Campbell soup box car, Campbell 40’ BEANS hopper car, and a Campbell soup caboose. The 2-0 had trouble running....until I looked at and it was tender driven, meaning there was a little drive shaft that went to the tender to the locomotive itself, and now, it runs near perfectly. The F-Unit I think just has really oxidized wheels, but it runs ok for its condition(reminder that these trains probably haven’t been ran in more than 20 yrs).
So glad to see this! I've been waiting to see which ones would run.
Really awesome runners right here Harrison for some they’ll need maintenance like you said I’m thinking the light bulb on the life like Union Pacific emd gp38-2 high hood must’ve been removed or something idk. The cotton belt locomotive is probably a emd sd40t-2 or sd45t-2 idk. Btw congratulations to Mr.Dreaded for winning these locomotives being sent to you by smt mainline! I hope you’ll enjoy em!
Thanks for sharing this,
Matt k aka trainman
or some idiot put it on the rails with 24v to test it- why do people do that?
@@tommurphy4307 who knows
That is awesome ! Thank you Harrison !
Wow! what a lot. You seem to have selected a good one . Nice Ebaying👍
Yes that's a DD35A, they came before the DD40s nice to have that in your collection.
These are DD40s, which were offered by EMD, but never actually produced.
@@natestrains1166 These are DD35s, EMD built DD35s, DD35As and DDA40Xs, and they were most certainly produced, and ran the rails, there are about a dozen or so surviving examples of the DDA40Xs, none that I know of of the 35s or 35As, they were also a Union Pacific exclusive locomotive, no other rail company had them. The differences between the 35s and 35As are minor, a bit wider cab on the 35As and slightly different placement of windows, the A40Xs though, the most noticeable difference is the cabs, the cabs are much wider, the hood is as wide as the cab and has sloping edges on top and the vents along the top edges of the locomotive were bigger on the A40Xs. The DD stands for Double Diesel, they essentially made two diesel locomotives into one, the same kind of idea they had when making the articulated locomotives like the Mallets, Challengers and Big Boys, there were also DD B units, they were the locomotives without the cabs, controlled from the lead locomotive, like the F units had B units. The downfall of the DD series was the fact that there was too much power going to not enough wheels and it was deemed to be more economical to hook two GP units together than to run one DD unit.
@@natestrains1166 DD40s are full cab versions . You can do your own real life research. DD35s came first. They were all scrapped after retirement. None were saved because they had electrical issues.
@@SoonerStateSirens1 EMD provided Athearn with drawings of their DD40, but none were ever made. DD35s have two smaller radiator fans, and 4 larger ones. Also, the boxes said DD40
@@sirremusrobinson1070 DDA40X were the wide-cab variant. These are based on drawings that EMD made for their DD40, but never built them.
I'm glad the ebay lot was a success. I like the way you select the winners of the giveaways. It seems like a fair way.
Glad to hear it, I wanted to keep it as fair as possible.
I sent you an email yesterday. I think you'll like my two additions to the collection.
Nice purchase! A lot of great locomotives. That Tyco Santa Fe looks pretty grumpy! I think I have an extra shell like that one.
I’m an o scale collector. Just got into Ho scale. Your vids help me soo much. Thanks 😊
Glad to hear it!
Another great video, can't wait for maintenance video.
So kind of you for the give away.
I am an inspiring ho scale railroader and I just got my favorite train in ho scale. The southern pacific daylight Lionel 4-8-4 and it works very well. You are a great UA-camr and you inspire me to make my own layout some day
Thank you!
@@SMTMainline Of Course!
Nice Cotton Belt tunnel motor.
They technically are DD40s though the standard cab throws people. EMD would provide Athearn with blueprints of coming locomotives but considering the lead time that meant Athearn was often working off initial designs that deviated from the production models. That's why the Athearn short lived GP30 came out with the vertical rear headlight like on the GP 7 or 9 rather than the real 30 with the second generation horizontal headlight or the Athearn SW1500 came out looking like the SW7 SW8 switchers. In the case of the DD40 the differences between the 35 and 40 were internal but by the time the 40 hit the market the era of the monster single freight unit was coming to a close and UP was the only interested party and strayed from the blueprint design by ordering their DD40s with the wide cab option. Basically the Athearn DD40 is a model of what the locomotive would have looked like if UP just went with the stock cab
I think this must be where the confusion is. Many say these are DD35s due to the cab but others such as yourself say otherwise.
I love that black and red Delaware and Hudson! Those engines were the mainline engines in my area in the 1980s
I think you really did good on this lot. I myself never found a lot bof locomotives and stuff like this. something that I haven't really jumped on when I look on eBay. I mostly fix what I have or find stuff at local flea market if I can very rare occasion but because it is becoming winter it's time to get cracking on fixing restoring and because I got an airbrush kit I recently got at harbor freight with compressor kind of dangerous they gave me a credit card LOL but I can now do some weathering on things that I've wanted to do. that life like locomotive looks like the date code says January 30th 1997. congratulations on the winner. you know Harrison I have a deep respect of Atlas, Athearn , and lifelike along with Mantua model power. my life like Amtrak locomotive started right up just like the ones you showed on here and it was sitting about 6 months.
nice haul harrison love all the old engines
Glad you enjoyed.
I really enjoy all of your videos. Going to the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show next weekend and I am so excited. Have you ever been?
The original Athearn DD40 was taken from original prototype plans from EMD of the DD40. Union Pacific added the then new wider cab which was the same as the FP40 and a few other changes, which then became the DD40AX. Obviously Athearn jumped the gun on producing the model before the actually locomotive had been built. Union Pacific was the only railroad to ever have these monsters, and all other roads are fantasy. It is more work to turn these DD40 into a DD35 than to add the correct cab from an FP40. The DD35 was mostly just 2 GP35's on the same frame.
Whats an FP40?
Loved the video, Harrison!
When are you going to do a collection count
It would be like 4 hours long
@@TealGuy but then would finally know how many locos smt is hording
@@Wawa111_Mainline *collecting
@@Indianarailproductions sure
@@TealGuy make it into different videos or parts
Always a good day when SMT posts!
Thanks
@@SMTMainline yep
Another great video SMT Mainline!
5:48 I love that mrc locomotive
You have a fantastic collection of model trains
Im sorry , folks ..I JUST LOVE these old locos from my childhood when I had just as much and MORE FUN with them than now....I could imagine and imagine and imagine all day long
The stuff from the 50s 60s 70s and 80s is awesome in it's own way. Non of it could compete as far as realism goes but as far as serviceability and durability they are un beat.
Good find. Congrats to the winner
I like the Southern box car in the background of all the locomotives!!!!
SURE THEY WILL ! EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM WILL RUN ! IT'S ALL ABOUT HOW MUCH TIME YOU TAKE WITH EACH ONE !
Nice to see most of them were runners. No real surprises which ones were and weren't though.
The first one I have in great condition! The wheels are still brand new and I installed a working LED light in it to where the light stays on even when not moving
That's awesome
i always enjoy your vids keep them coming
You're a class act kiddo. Good work.
You do have a knack for finding value in these random lots of locos of unknown run ability.
I made off well in this case.
Your work is amazing, it motivated me to build my layout
Awesome engines!! Big fan of your channel ...you have great info on trains for novices like myself. Thanks for the great videos and keep them coming buddy. Thanks and God bless😎👍
you know what's funny I was looking a that exact lot and was thinking of bidding but never got to it good video dude
In my opinion this lot was worth it just for the working engines make this whole lot worth it all of the other engines are also great you got lucky with this lot! Also the lights on the Modern Athearn engines the lights probably aren’t broken just the lights have probably just slipped out of the holes.
thinkontario will eveer get high speed rail
I wish I had some of the talent and locomotives you have.
That was a fantastic lot SMT!
Excellent lot. I remember seeing it. The Dash 9 and SD40’s are worth more than half of what you paid for the lot. That Tyco Santa Fe shell is pretty much trash.
That's what I figured when buying it. Glad to see they work.
Wow SMT that’s a lot of cool locomotives 👍🏻🔔🇨🇦🚂🥓Thanks TSM
Antique stores have net trains even any scale sometimes
Glad to see they almost all run, and run well.
Absolutely
The DD40 was almost real... EMD designed it and tried to sell it, but no one bought any so none were built. So they added some experimental electronics and added a wide nose and giant fuel tank, called it a DDA40X, and then Union Pacific bought a bunch.
The earlier DD35A was similar but based on the GP35, and the only way I can tell it apart from the DD40 was that the DD35A's middle fans (i.e. the GP35's three rear fans) weren't all the same size while the DD40/GP40's were. The DD35 (no "A") was cabless and Southern Pacific bought 3. Union Pacific bought some of those and was the only buyer of the DD35A.
From my understanding, Athearn produced a bunch of fictional DD40's way back in the day based on what EMD had at the time. They never really existed, hence why they get confused with the DD35A's.
A good rule of thumb is that if it has a standard with hood it is a DD35 but if it has a wide hood then it is a DD40
There's other factors that might suggest otherwise.
The trains I had back then were just some garage sale finds, and I still have them to this day.
When you buy in bulk you go all out 👍! A great large addition 😊👍👍!
Man!! I miss the giveaway... i like your videos!!. Lots of fun and tips.
UP SD40-2 3575 is an Athearn Ready-to-Roll or Genesis locomotive. Athearn modern ready-to-roll engines have lots of detail similar to Genesis engines.
I can't tell what the difference is to be honest.
I noticed that the to Santa Fe locomotive have that mirror reflection of nichael silver and the silver paint..... And running that many locomotives all at once you may need to clean your tracks because of all the new dirty Wheels.......
Thanks for showing in the other video how you find stuff on ebay.
Oh that's nice, the SP DD35A
And funnily enough, even though they didnt own any DD35A's, they did own 3 DD35's
That UP 3575 is really nice
Nice lot! I hope you are happy with it!
Harrison, would you run your orange and black trains for Halloween? New Haven is a special favorite. Thank you for the consideration.
That might be fun.
That DASH-9 Is beautiful.
I do also have an Athearn DASH-9 in the CNW livery (#8663) and I am more than satisfied with it!
They did a pretty good job for the time. I also have their Canadian pacific AC4400 and it's great.
4:50 that UP unit is EMD SD45 UP 3605
With that first one, I have that exact model but it started smoking within two minutes of me running it.
And same with your ATSF 3560, I have that one as well and it begins to smoke almost instantly.
Clean the commutator, sometimes carbon builds up and starts to burn.
Also can you refer to the DD40s as centennials because that is there given name or by there nickname Big Jack/Jack's.
Daaaaamnnnnnn mannnnn
Those are DD35, DD40 have the wide cab. Thanks for sharing.
Don’t think the SP had a DD35.
These were based on drawings that EMD produced for a standard-cab DD40.
@@nathanielszychulda7204 Nope, they wouldn't have had them, the DD series is a Union Pacific exclusive locomotive.
@@nathanielszychulda7204 fantasy paint scheme
@@nathanielszychulda7204 It looks like the SP had three DD35s- but they were all B units. Both SP and UP had DD35s, but UP bought a proper fleet, and only the UP ordered any DD35As, which have the cabs. Didn't know about any of this until I saw the discourse in the comments section and had to go look it up.
Dear smtline I just started to do model trains and I need more model trains and I watch the channel alot from your model train fan mason
I like the taco mantoa Jeep 20 you got there in your giveaway thar but it's a Pennsylvania and I'm a New York Central fan.......
I have a definitive answer for you. Those two that you said was a debate between DD40 and DD35; those are DD35As A regular DD35 was a cabless booster unit.
I love your videos
Great lot. Love the variety.
Cool video, Harrison....
the dash 9 looks very good
Great video!
That cotton belt one is a SD40-2T.
alot of nice runners, and projects. can't wait to see the repair of the union pacific dd, i'm gonna guess right now that it's a single motor. that atlas/kato locomotive was so quiet, i wonder if it makes any noise running at full speed (just for a test of course). congratulations to mrdreaded88 with the giveaway
8:18 didn’t you do that DD35 custom Canadian locomotive one time
You should do a large power move!
UP has the DDA40X with the wide cab 35s had a standard cab SP only has DD365
Cool stuff man, when will you do another giveaway?
Awesome 🤩
Very informative.
hi i really love your video.
Great video
Actually the Guilford Atlas engine was made in China so not a Kato drive. Still a very nice runner. The Atlas Union Pacific GP-38 is an old release made by Roco. Usually good runners but tend to growl, and not well detailed. The Cotton Belt engine is a SD40T-2, a nice running Athearn blue box for sure.
Actually Atlas did use the Kato drive train in these locomotives although you are correct that the frame and body is Atlas tooling made in China. I have several of these U36Cs as well as their C30-7 models and all of them use Kato motors. Somewhere around the year 2000, Atlas began using their own motors as well as ending production on the U33C/U36C and the C30-7 and haven't been offered since.
Since you can buy custom decals online. Have you ever thought of making the two different locomotives class we saw from the movie unstoppable?