Review

The latest HO diesel locomotive offering from Life-Like Proto 2000 is actually a model that was originally scheduled for release late last year. However, some problems were encountered during production, and the release date had to be pushed off until now. This new release is an HO ready-to-run model of the Electro-Motive Division (EMD) GP38-2. The initial release of this model will include the following roadnames: Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Chicago Rock Island & Pacific, Illinois Central Gulf, Milwaukee Road, Norfolk Southern, Seaboard Coast Line, Lehigh Valley, CSX, and undecorated. Each roadname is available in two roadnumbers.EMD's GP38-2

The EMD GP38-2 was introduced in 1972, and produced for fifteen years with a total of 2,188 units sold in North America. The GP38-2 was part the Dash-2 Line of locomotives from EMD introduced in 1972. The line included the GP39-2, GP40-2, SD38-2, SD40-2, and SD45-2 in addition to the GP38-2. All were improved versions of the same previous designs, yet they kept the same horsepower ratings. The improvements were mainly in the electrical components, and a change to replaceable modular electronics in the main electrical cabinet. This allowed for easier troubleshooting of problems and faster repair. When the defective module was located, it was a simple matter to pull it out and replace it with a new one. This helped the Dash-2 line of locomotives to realize a higher rating of availability over its earlier predecessors. This, and other improvements that were designed into the GP38-2, helped it reach a 98 percent reliability rating.

As with any major change in a locomotive design, cosmetic changes resulted, and the GP38-2 was no exception. There were several characteristic spotting features for the GP38-2 over the earlier GP38 and GP38AC. These included a rear overhang of the cab roof, a water sight glass on the third short door on right side, a paper air filter right behind the inertial hatch, two gasketed access plates above the rear number boards, bolted on access doors on the sub-base, and Blomberg type "M" trucks. However, the latter item is not always a spotting feature due to the fact that a lot of railroads utilized earlier Blomberg trucks from trade-in locomotives or specified the earlier style truck on their GP38-2s.There were also several external changes that took place during the production period of the GP38-2 that coincided with additional improvements and changes to the overall design of the GP38-2. Units built before 1976 came equipped with an 81-inch short hood. In 1976 this was changed to an 88-inch short hood. The only exception to this being the high short hood option that was chosen by the Southern and Norfolk & Western Railways.

High short hoods were always delivered 81 inches long. This change in short hood length also coincided with the addition of a large anti-climber on the front pilot. The paper air filter boxes mentioned previously were originally square, but were eventually changed to a beveled design. The most noticeable external changes came in the radiator section. Early GP382s came with split "chicken wire" style radiator screens and 48-inch diameter radiators fans spaced 21 inches apart. By late 1972 the radiator was shortened two feet. This resulted in a one-piece "chicken wire" radiator screen with radiator fans spaced only 7 inches apart. Finally in mid-1976 the radiator screens changed to a corrugated style, and in the early 1980s, the radiator fans were changed to the then-standard "Q style" fans.

As with any series of production changes that occur during the production span of a diesel locomotive, a lot of these features overlapped each other, and a study of photographs of the GP38-2s for your chosen railroad can help determine which features were present. I bring all this up because the literature we received with the review model shown here indicates that a lot of the different features will be offered on this new model as they apply to each roadname. Life-Like indicates that there will be the following prototype options available on this model:

Standard dynamic brakes, extend range dynamic brakes, and no dynamic brakes.

Standard or high adhesion trucks.

Early or late air filter box.

Early or late radiator grills with corresponding fan spacing.

I did find a few additional dimensional shortcomings in the shell. The first is the blower duct, or "dust bin" as it is often referred to. The model's measured out to be approximately a scale 3-3/4 inches too wide. Also, the inertial screen on the left side is approximately a scale 2 inches too long. Finally, the lift rings appear to be a bit oversized when compared with prototype photos. These are relatively minor discrepancies, but are worth making note of. In the current world of high quality, highly detailed, ready to run HO scale locomotive models, it is the details that make the difference to a lot of modelers.

Life-Like Proto 2000 has done an outstanding job of recreating an EMD second generation fuel tank. Detailing on the fuel tank includes the fuel filter, vertical and dial fuel sight gauges, and a separate breather pipe. Additionally, they have included a detail that was first introduced on their HO scale SD50 model, the end plates of the fuel tank have been defined and molded in. This is a detail that modelers who like to super detail their models have had to create with very thin sheet styrene for years. I am very excited to see this feature included on this model.

Operation

As has become a standard for Proto 2000 models, this model includes a large weight that almost fills the interior of the shell. This makes for a locomotive that tracks well and has a lot of pulling power. The Dash-2 pulled 56 standard freight cars on level track before slipping when tested. This is some exceptional pulling power. The model exhibited smooth and quiet running characteristics with smooth speed transition from a dead stop all the way up to full speed. The one down side was that there is no noticeable flywheel coast in either direction. The only thing I can attribute this to is the fact that the flywheels on the model are somewhat small. Larger flywheels would have improved that aspect of the running quality significantly.

Operational features of the drive in this model include directional constant lighting, and an eight-pin DCC plug allowing for plug and play DCC operation.

For those of you that have not or are not planning to make the switch to DCC control, I compared this model with two recent offerings from Life-Like Proto 2000 to determine how well they would run together. The two models are the SD45 and SD50. In the case of the SD45, both models started off equally, but the SD45 increases in speed faster than the GP38-2.

Also, the overall top speed is slower than the SD45. However, at slower speeds the two models run together very well. The only difference is the lack of flywheel coast on the GP38-2 as compared to the SD45. When compared to the SD50, I found that the GP38-2 ran much slower then the SD50 at all throttle settings. The SD50 also starts at a lower throttle setting than the SD50. The result is that the GP38-2 does not run well with the SD50 at any speed.

Paint and lettering

The final aspect of this model to be considered is the paint and lettering. In the past, Life-Like Proto 2000 has built a reputation for themselves for having extremely well-done paint and graphics in terms of the overall finish. The GP 38-2 is no exception. The paint and lettering finish is excellent. The lettering is crisp and opaque. This is important to note on the Lehigh Valley paint scheme, due to the fact that yellow has historically been a hard color to get good opaque results and yet still maintain a thin smooth application. The lettering on the small safety labels is also clean and legible under magnification.

In referencing numerous photographs of prototype Lehigh Valley GP38-2s to determine the level of accuracy of the graphics on this model, I found one very noticeable problem. The word LEHIGH on both sides of the model is condensed in such a way that the length of the word is approximately 14 inches too short when measuring from the beginning of the L to the end of the H. Aside from that, the graphics are an extremely good match to the prototype Lehigh Valley GP38-2s. The rendition of Cornell Red used on this model also appears to be very accurate.

Summary

Overall, this new HO EMD GP38-2 diesel locomotive from Life-Like is a beautiful model. It is a faithful representation of the prototype locomotive in all aspects with the exception of those I have listed. On balance, this is a model that every modeler who models from the 1970s up through today needs in their locomotive fleet, whether they model a prototype railroad that rostered them or a freelanced railroad of their own design. The prototype GP38-2 was very popular with railroads in North America, and this model should be equally popular with HO modelers.