CSX, one of America’s railroad giants with a 21,000-mile route system, called upon more than 450 of Electro-Motive’s versatile GP40-2 diesel road-switchers, making the locomotive a perfect addition to Train Sim World CSX Heavy Haul. And the GP40-2, in classic “Bright Future” (“YN2”) livery, is now available for service on famed Sand Patch Grade!

The four-axle (B-B), 3,000-horsepower GP40-2 road-switcher was constructed by Electro-Motive from 1972 to 1986, with EMD churning out a total of 1,143 units sold to 27 original railroad buyers. Because CSX was created just as GP40-2 production was ending, CSX was not among that list of original purchasers, but no less than 11 railroads that would eventually become (in whole or in part) members of today’s giant CSX system were buyers. The pre-CSX railroads that purchased the GP40-2 included the four largest CSX predecessors: Chesapeake & Ohio; Baltimore & Ohio; Seaboard Coast Line; and Louisville & Nashville; and it included notable mid-sized roads such as Western Maryland and Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac. Indeed, during the 1970s, Chessie System (which included B&O, C&O, and Western Maryland) had made the GP40-2 its locomotive of choice, purchasing 348 of the 3,000-horsepower road-switchers that were all originally dressed in Chessie’s memorable and colorful “Chessie the Cat” livery. Finally, in 1999, CSX also inherited a sizable portion of Conrail’s 129-unit GP40-2 fleet when CSX and NS acquired and divided that railroad.

Today, CSX continues to employ a large fleet of veteran and versatile GP40-2s in road, local, and switching duties across its sprawling system. CSX has, in fact, extended the already remarkable tenures of many of its units through a “GP40-3” upgrade and rebuilding program. And the successful and venerable Electro-Motive GP40-2, in classic and attractive CSX “Bright Future” (“YN2”) livery, is now available as DLC for service on Sand Patch Grade in Train Sim World CSX Heavy Haul. Created in exacting detail and with realistic operating characteristics, the Train Sim World Electro-Motive GP40-2 joins the CSX SD40-2, GP38-2, and GE AC4400CW as authentic motive power to move tonnage up and over the Sand Patch Grade route. Also included in the CSX GP40-2 DLC are a pair of contemporary and authentic freight cars seen in service throughout North America and ideal for manifest service on Sand Patch Grade – a 73-foot center-beam flatcar and a CSX 42-foot steel coil car.

The CSX EMD GP40-2 is fully integrated into CSX Heavy Haul’s innovative and realistic “Services” mode – and now is the perfect time to take the throttle of the classic CSX Electro-Motive GP40-2 diesel road-switcher for duty on Sand Patch Grade! – Gary Dolzall ■