Pre-Order | Next Shipment September 2024
Athearn - Item No. ATHG41078
3.3 out of 5 Customer Rating

HO U50 Locomotive, SP #9950

$369.99
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SP FEATURES:

  • SP Style “Big Hole” Emergency light (Flash function in DCC only)
  • Classification lights (Function in DCC only)
  • Working Truck lights
  • Number board lights
  • MU hoses
  • Separate see-through air intake grills

Due to the increase of better highways in the 1950’s the trucking industry was beginning to siphon off time sensitive traffic from the railroads. Consequently, in the late 1950’s the Southern Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads were seeking ways to increase the horsepower of their locomotives to help improve train speeds without having to add more locomotives to their trains. The SP was striving to improve transit times on their Sunset Route freights and was utilizing large groups of lower horsepower locomotives to do so. One method to achieve these goals was to mount two complete prime movers on one chassis. UP asked the 3 major locomotive builders at that time to submit proposals using this concept. In response, General Electric created their 5,000-horsepower U50 model, a design which utilized two 2500-horsepower prime movers. SP decided to give 3 of them a try, receiving them in the summer of 1964, but chose not to order any others. They spent most their early service lives working on SP’s Sunset Route and ended their SP careers in the 1970’s working in drag freight service in the Los Angeles Basin in California. All three were scrapped by 1979.

U50 SERIES LOCOMOTIVE FEATURES:

  • Illuminated truck lights
  • Illuminated classification lights
  • Illuminated number boards
  • See-through air intakes
  • 4-cube speakers
  • Minimum radius: 18” — Recommended radius: 22”
  • GENESIS DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE FEATURES:

  • Coupler cut levers
  • MU hoses
  • Trainline hose
  • See-through cab windows
  • Full cab interior
  • Walkway tread
  • Windshield wipers
  • Wire grab irons
  • DCC-ready features Quick Plug™ plug-and-play technology with 21-pin NEM connector
  • Fine-scale Celcon handrails for scale appearance
  • Detailed fuel tank with fuel fillers, fuel gauges, breather pipes, and retention tanks
  • Body-mounted McHenry® operating scale knuckle couplers
  • Genesis driveline with 5-pole skew wound motor, precision machined flywheels, and multi-link drivetrain for trouble free operation
  • All-wheel drive with precision gears for smooth and quiet operation
  • All-wheel electrical pickup provides reliable current flow
  • Wheels with RP25 contours operate on all popular brands of track
  • LED Lighting for trouble free operation
  • Heavy die-cast frame for greater traction and more pulling power
  • Scaled from prototype resources including drawings, field measurements, photographs, and more
  • Accurately-painted and –printed paint schemes
  • Fully-assembled and ready-to-run
  • Packaging securely holds the model for safe storage

SOUND-EQUIPPED MODELS ALSO FEATURE

  • Onboard DCC decoder with SoundTraxx Tsunami2 sound

Product Specs

Reporting Mark
SP
DCC
Ready/21-Pin NEM
Scale
HO
Sub Brand
GENESIS
Era
1941-1970, 1971-1990
Prototype Manufacturer
GE
Lighting
LED
Sound
Ready
Axles
8