The Atlas Model Railroad Company Blog

All the news fit to print from the Atlas Model Railroad Company

The Atlas Product Spotlight - O GP38-2 Locomotive

The Atlas Product Spotlight - O GP38-2 Locomotive

Produced from 1972 to 1986, the GP38-2 helped inaugurate Electro-Motive’s “Dash-2” series of locomotives and became one of EMD’s all-time best sellers. With over 2200 engines sold throughout North America, rare was the railroad that did not roster these reliable, second-generation EMD workhorses.

Building on the success of the GP38 introduced in 1966, the Dash-2 model looked almost identical on the outside but incorporated a host of internal upgrades that lowered exhaust emissions and improved reliability, ease of maintenance, and tractive effort. Most significant was the replacement of the maze of hard-wired circuits, switches, interlocks, and relays — which had characterized first-generation diesels and had been the source of many of their service issues — with modular, solid-state electronics. Other improvements toughened the pistons, rings, and bearings of the 2000-horsepower, non-turbocharged model 645 prime mover.

The result was an engine so hard working and dependable that it became as common on American railroads as the F-unit was in the 1950s and ‘60s. Trains magazine recognized this in 1982 by designating B&O GP38 (a pre-Dash-2 model) as the All American Diesel; the engine resides today in the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, repainted in its 1982 Chessie System colors.

Many GP38-2s have soldiered on for more than three decades and remain in service today on short lines and regional railroads.

york livestream

Learn all about this model from the Summer 2024 Premier Catalog Live Stream

The guaranteed order deadline is September 4, 2024. Click here to find an Authorized Atlas Dealer near you.

Features Include:

  • Intricately Detailed, Durable ABS Body
  • Die-Cast Truck Sides, Pilots and Fuel Tank
  • Metal Chassis
  • Metal Handrails and Horn
  • Moveable Roof Fans
  • Metal Body Side Grilles
  • Detachable Snow Plow
  • Handpainted Engineer Cab Figures
  • Authentic Paint Scheme
  • Metal Wheels, Axles and Gears
  • Remote-Controlled Proto-Couplers
  • O Scale Kadee-Compatible Coupler Mounting Pads
  • Prototypical Rule 17 Lighting
  • Directionally Controlled Constant Voltage LED Headlights
  • Lighted LED Cab Interior Light
  • Illuminated LED Number Boards
  • Lighted LED Marker Lights
  • (2) Precision Flywheel-Equipped Motors
  • Operating ProtoSmoke Diesel Exhaust
  • Playable Horn Sounds
  • Onboard DCC/DCS Decoder
  • Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments
  • Proto-Scale 3-2 3-Rail/2-Rail Conversion Capable
  • 1:48 Scale Proportions
  • Proto-Sound 3.0 w/ The Digital Command System featuring Freight Yard Proto-Effects
  • Unit Measures: 15 1/2” x 2 3/4” x 4”
  • Operates On O-31 Curves
 
genesis
Amtrak® Phase VII
3-Rail Item #:
2-Rail Item#
30138338
30138339
30138354
30138355
genesis
BNSF 
3-Rail Item #:
2-Rail Item#
30138340
30138341
30138356
30138357
genesis
Canadian Pacific
3-Rail Item #:
2-Rail Item#
30138342
30138343
30138358
30138359
genesis
Chessie System
3-Rail Item #:
2-Rail Item#
30138344
30138345
30138360
30138361
genesis
Conrail
3-Rail Item #:
2-Rail Item#
30138346
30138347
30138362
30138363
genesis
Genesee & Wyoming (Heritage)
3-Rail Item #:
2-Rail Item#
30138348 30138364
genesis
Reading & Northern (40th Anniversary)
3-Rail Item #:
2-Rail Item#
30138349 30138365
genesis
Rock Island Rail (George W. Lamore)
3-Rail Item #:
2-Rail Item#
30138350 30138366
genesis
Rock Island Rail (The American Railfan)
3-Rail Item #:
2-Rail Item#
30138351 30138367
genesis
Vermont Railway
3-Rail Item #:
2-Rail Item#
30138352
30138353
30138368
30138369

Add comment

Loading