Subscribe to download
EMD SD90MAC-H and SD89MAC

The last of the Big MACs, and arguably the worst (mechanically) of the fleet. The problematic, failing, crap-the-bed, SD90MAC-H's plus the forgotten successor, the SD89MAC.


As usual history:

Following the debut of the SD90MAC in 1995, production started a year later on a 16-cylinder H-engine for the SD90MAC's that would result in the "SD90MAC-H" series which would debut the same year. Later versions of these units would gain a new nose that would help visibility from the cab (which would also be reused on the later SD70s such as the SD70M-2 and SD70Ace). Even with they did look modern, they were plagued with problems compared to the regular SD90s. Because of the large prime mover, it didn't provide railroads with the same operational flexibility of other units, and because of this, only larger companies could use these units (which were Union Pacific with 67, and Canadian Pacific with 4). Even with the pacifics having these Big Monsters, they suffered from constant shutdowns on long trains due to the engines unreliability, which meant that on a long train, if a 90MAC-H were to shut down, meaning that a great portion of power was cut off the trains. UP and CP ended up retiring these failing beasts before the 2010s with them being sold to leasing companies or scrapped.

In 2000, EMD built a prototype for a lighter version of the SD90MAC-H called the "SD89MAC" which used radial-steering trucks, an isolated cab and using AC traction. The plan was to use this as a lighter version of the SD90MAC and potentially replace the SD70 series from the catalog, but sadly, no orders were ever placed onto these units, and the sole demonstrator (EMDX 92) was used as a test-bed its whole life, and currently is used to test Tier 4 technology.

In this pack, you get the sole SD89MAC, the demonstrator SD90MAC-H's and both UP and CP variants as they were seen during there "prime".