MTH O Scale Premier Southern Pacific GP-35 Low Hood Diesel Engine w/Proto-Sound 3.0 (Hi-Rail Wheels)

Produced from 1963 to 1966, the GP35, along with its six-axleSD35 sibling, marked both an end and a beginning. They were the lastroad diesels to use the EMD 567 motor that had powered switchers,F-units, and Geeps since 1939 (so named because each cylinder displaced567 cubic inches). For the horsepower race of the 1960s, EMD tweakedthe 567 to a turbocharged V-16 delivering 2500 hp. That was it for the567, however, and in 1966 the baton was passed to the more powerfulmodel 645. But while the “35 line” diesels ushered out an old motor,they inaugurated a new look. Their angled cab roofs and the clean,squared-off lines of their car bodies established the look of EMD powerfor the next three decades.

Introduced to compete with General Electric’s landmark U25B,which had ushered in the second generation of diesel power, the GP35outsold the “U-Boat” nearly three to one. There was a strong market fornew power in the mid-1960s because the first-generation diesels thathad vanquished steam were wearing out. While first-generation rostershad often been a hodgepodge of manufacturers and models as railroadsexperimented with the new technology, by 1960 Alco, EMD, and GE werethe only manufacturers left standing – and Alco would soon throw in thetowel. As a result, virtually every major U.S. railroad became a GP35customer, and over 1300 engines were sold in the United States, Canada,and Mexico.

While our Premier model is not the first O gauge version ofthis second-generation pioneer, it offers the best combination ofdetail, realism, and performance of any 1/48 scale GP35. Added-ondetail parts include windshield wipers, metal see-thru body grilles,lift rings, metal grab irons and handrails, see-thru rooftop fanhousings, and brake cylinders, air pipes, and swing hangers on oursuper-detailed Blomberg trucks. And in command mode with the DCSsystem, you can create a lashup combining one or more GP35s with otherProto-Sound 3.0 or Proto-Sound 2.0 first- or second-generation power,and run them from a single throttle just like the prototype.