Evolution of a Favorite: The EMD SD45 as offered by Atlas (Mehanno) and Kato

EMD SD45 - GM Demonstatrato #4351

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/emd4351.jpg

Over the course of N-scale's history, models of the EMD SD45 have come (and gone) over the years. I managed to miss most of these examples, being brass, though the Con Cor offering eluded my intent during the period as well. Perhaps this is for the better?

Grade	Model Year	Prototype Year	DCC	Importer/Vendor	Exporter/Manufacturer
F	1969	1965	.	Various	Mehano (Yugoslavia)
D	1972	1965	.	Con-Cor	Mehano (Yugoslavia)
C	1985	1965	.	Con-Cor	Con-Cor (Austria)
B	1985	1965	.	Key	Endo (Japan)
B	1988	1965	.	Hallmark	Samhongsa (Korea)
A	1995	1965	.	Kato	Kato (Japan)
B	2004	1965	F	Bachmann	Bachmann (China)
A	2010	1965	PNP	Kato	Kato (Japan)

In [http://nscaleevolution.blogspot.com/2018/10/evolution-of-favorite-alco-c-420-as.html] this post [/url] I referred to my first N-Scale locomotive; the Atlas SD45. And since I started the "Evolution of a Favorite" series I thought it would only be fitting to show how much my 'first' has grown up.

Let's take a long look back to the cherished early days of early N-Scale, when Atlas N-Scale train sets graced the pages of the department store Christmas toy catalogs. We all probably drooled over them and made our "lists" from items on those pages; who needed anything else? Even JC Penny still sold N-Scale several years later, as my birthday presents were Atlas baggage dormitory and coach cars, bought off the shelf!

But back to the story. As I mentioned, my first N-Scale locomotive was the Atlas SD45. For its day it may have been no prize, but man, it could pull. And it was MINE! Many fine hours were spent with this running around a loop of track on a roll-away table under my bed. In its original form it looked like this:

And somewhere along the way I decided to paint it!

 

Mark (a.k.a. Spookshow, the venerable tome of N-Scale lore), beat it up rather badly, and deservedly:

"Like the rest of Mehano's nefarious line of N scale diesels, this one has a long and tortured history. Atlas was the first importer (starting in 1969). That relationship lasted up until sometime in the mid-1970s when PMI took over. Sometime in the 1980s, PMI vanished and Life-Like and Model Power became the new importers. Life-Like only offered these for a few years before switching over to their own line of Chinese-manufactured diesels. The Model Power imports were a staple of magazine ads for many years, but they finally vanished sometime around 1998. Perhaps due to all the conflict in the former Yugoslavia?

This model shares a similar design (and history) with Mehano's equally awful GP40 model. Traction tires eat up 4 of the wheels on the rear truck (making for iffy pickup and an extremely wobbly ride). Only two of the six axles are powered. The cheap 3-pole motor and plastic moving parts turn into a shaking, buzzing monster when current is applied. The paint is terrible, the handrails are huge, the couplers are truck mounted Rapidos, the pilots are wide open, electrical current is ferried around via wires and the non-directional headlight lights up the entire nose from within. In a word - yuck."

[url] http://www.spookshow.net/loco/yugosd45.html [/url]

Thankfully I was able to acquire a more modern model in a better paint job, ala Kato:

As static models go the old dog can do a nice job sitting around the engine terminal perhaps, after the railings and pilots are dealt with, as it doesn't look TOO terrible:

Though the details are not as fine, and the hood is a bit wider when viewed from the top:

Still, it is nice to reflect on how far we have come in this hobby, and hopefully things can and do only get better.

By the way; for those of you keeping score, the toad (vintage Atlas grade 'F') managed to evolve nicely into the prince (grade 'A') and who am I to argue with the master of comparison?