Spectrum SD45

[Earle Baldwin]

Hi!

Would anyone be kind enough to share their impressions and opinions of the Spectrum SD45?  How does it stack up in detail, paint and operation to comparable Atlas locomotives?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Best regards,

Earle

[Railhead]

Hi Earle,
      Actually you should be comparing a Kato SD-45 to the Bachmann SD-45 and seeing the differences in the tooling and comparing those to a prototype picture of an actual EMD SD-45.

[David Leonard]

The Bachmann SD45 had/has some detail appearance issues, the most serious of which (the lack of a blower duct under the walkway on the fireman's side) has been corrected on the current production run. (You can tell the second run from the first run by the road numbers). The bottom edge of the sill is still straight across the whole unit, whereas there should be an indented (upward) section in the middle. The rear of the radiator grills looks a little odd from the side. The handrails seem to tilt slightly forward in places.  Overall appearance is OK IMO but you can judge that for yourself. The trucks and fuel tank may be a tad underscale. The top section of the fuel tank piece should really extend up into the indentation that is lacking anyway. Some of these appearance  issues could be corrected by an experienced modeler, but I'm not planning on bothering much with it myself. I have a hundred other projects waiting in line ahead of it.

Performance wise, it has some sort of wiper pick up system (not axle point pickup, which many modelers regard as superior) so you will likely have to disassemble and clean the contacts more frequently. Other than that, it is a very good runner--good slow speed operation with a reasonable top speed. Mine isn't broken in yet, but I'd say it's reasonably quiet, although noise is not something I pay much attention to.

If you can grab these at a cheap price, I'd say go for it. The Kato versions are few and far between and don't have nearly the good paint jobs that the Bachmanns have.

[Williamson]

In addition to David's comments, there is too much "space" between the trucks and the sill, which looks kinda "funny". I assume this means the Bachmann SD45 sits too high.

Mark

[skipgear]

I have been working on bringing one up to standard.





Here is how I cured the height issue and got the bonus of phosor bronze spring pickups.



Unfortunately I started with an undec which didn't have the updated blower duct so I had to build that and redo the railing to match. There is still a lot to go. I am trying to decide if I want to put photo etch fans in it and also how to build working porch mount ditchlights for it.