GE B36-7 'Tuxedo'
(LokSound and DCC)

Southern  No. 3818

Puttin' On The Ritz!

The Rapido Trains B36-7 is based on General Electric-built diesel locomotives used by several lines to haul freight on expedited schedules. The four-axle units were high-horsepower racers built to appeal to railroads in the early 1980s looking to turbocharge their growing intermodal business. They could be found in multiples at the head of piggyback and auto rack and then-new double-stack container trains. There were few drag freights or slow-moving manifests for these thoroughbreds in their early years.

Replacing the |Universal Series} U36B in the GE catalog, the first prototypes were built at Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1980 for SP subsidiary Cotton Belt (St Louis Southwestern). By the last year of production in 1985 some 222 locomotives had been constructed for US railroads with a further eight for export. The design found customers in several of the larger Class 1s of the period: Santa Fe, Conrail, Seaboard System, Southern Railway and Southern Pacific. With the mergers of the mid-1980s and the Conrail split of 1999 the bulk of the fleet ended up with CSX and Norfolk Southern. Circa 2000 the CSX roster was overflowing with B36-7s, with around 140 former Conrail and Seaboard units operating all over the eastern half of the US.

In 2018, a few units still operate for secondary owners and several previously owned units were exported to South America.

The Rapido Trains HO Scale B36-7 features prototypically accurate, roadname-specific detailing on all five body variations. Details include appropriate body styles, roadname-specific etched-metal sound baffles, many underbody details, full cab interior, metal side handrails with plastic stanchions, working ditch lights as appropriate and appropriate headlight and marker light variations. This sound-equipped model features a full-featured ESU LokSound and DCC decoder with accurate sounds recorded from a prototype B36-7.

Southern’s six B36-7s were all delivered with both baffles, but these were quickly reduced to one each side, possibly for visibility reasons (the radiator is at the Front of the locomotive of course).

• Preorder by 04 July 2018
• 3D scanned from an ex-CSX B36-7 for 100% accurate shape and dimensions
• Incredible underframe detail including piping and a ridiculous number of separately-applied parts
• Full cab interior, with correct orientation for standard or Southern locomotives
• Dead straight metal side handrails with plastic stanchions
• Working headlights in correct location, switchable number boards at both ends and cab interior headlight
• Accurate sounds recorded from an actual Minnesota Commercial B36-7 under load
• Rapido’s proven 5-pole skew-wound motor with dual flywheels and silky-smooth drive

Road specific:

• Early body and high short hood
• No anticlimber
• Class lights both ends
• Hinged low mounted drop step
• SOU/NS fuel tank with correct filler/gauge locations
• Large plow both ends
• Bell at long hood end
• Brass Nathan P5 horns at each end
• Walkway light castings (not operational)
• Firecracker antennas
• Single noise baffle with optional double baffles
• Correctly oriented cab interior
• NS/SOU sunshade

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