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GP40s and GP38s do weigh the same. Look it up. You will find some variation because the railroad ordered some with extra ballast, or one has a full size fuel tank and the other a small one. You will find some GP38s that weigh somewhat more than some GP40s, and also the opposite due to the optional equipment ordered by the railroad. On the PRR the SD40s weighed much more than the SD45s because the PRR ordered the SD40s weighed down with thousands of pounds of concrete. They wanted the SD45s for speed, so you keep them light for maximum speed, but with lower tractive effort. The SD40s were ordered to pull mineral service trains, thus you maximize weight so there is more tractive effort making the locomotive able to pull more tonnage, but at a lower speed. <br /> <br />The reason they put three GP38s on the same train they put two GP40s is obvious. They wanted to run the train at the same speed each day. So you put on the same Horsepower. Three 2000 HP GP38s is the same as two 3000 HP GP40s, a total of 6000 horsepower in both cases. So if two locomotives have enough Tractive effort to pull the train, then two GP40s can pull the train at the same speed as three GP38s. But the three GP38s could still pull a train half again longer than what the two GP40s could manage, albeit at a lower speed.
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