For much of the twentieth century, the Union Pacific had a love affair with massive, larger-than-life locomotives, custom-built for the UP and rostered nowhere else. The family line that began with the Union Pacific-type 4-12-2 steamer and continued with the Challenger, Big Boy, and gas turbines ended with the DDA40X Centennials. Built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in 1969-71, the Centennials are still the longest (98') and most powerful (6600hp) diesels ever built in the western hemisphere, and the last unique UP motive power. For the decade of the 1970s, they ruled the road from the Midwest to the west coast, hustling UP fast freights at up to 90mph.
In the early 1960s, the UP had asked the major diesel builders to come up with a high-powered, fast freight engine, and EMD, GE, and ALCo had each built samples following the same concept: two diesel motors on one long frame with a total of about 5000 horsepower. While ALCo's smoky, somewhat-unreliable Century 855 never made it past the prototype stage, EMD's DD35 and GE's U50 generated modest orders from the railroad. When the UP decided to revisit the concept a few years later, EMD was ready with a better idea: the DDA40X ("X" for experimental) essentially packed two GP40s under one hood, incorporated the then-new wide-nosed cab for increased crew comfort and safety, and served as a test bed for the electronics that EMD would later incorporate into its next generation of diesels, the Dash 2 series. The first engine, no. 6900, was rushed to completion in time for the May 10, 1969 centennial of the golden spike that completed the first transcontinental railroad, giving the new class of diesels its name. The 47 Centennials became the UP's premier power on its western main lines and kept that crown for a decade, with many units running up more than 2 million miles of service.
- Directionally Controlled Headlights
- Die-Cast Truck Sides, Pilots and Fuel Tank
- (2) Remotely Controlled Proto-Couplersr
- Metal Chassis
- Metal Handrails and Decorative Horn
- (2) Precision Flywheel Equipped Motors
- Lighted Cab Interior
- Illuminated Number Boards
- Lighted Marker Lights
- (2) Engineer Cab Figures
- Operating Smoke Unit
- Metal Body Side Grills
- Intricately Detailed ABS Body
- Metal Wheels, Axles and Gears
- Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments
- Proto-Sound 2.0 With The Digital Command System Featuring: Quillable Horn With Passenger Station Proto-Effects
- Unit Measures:25 3/8 x 2 3/4 x 3 15/16
- Operates On O-72 Curves
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