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The SD45 is a six-axle diesel-electric locomotive class built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between 1965 and 1971. It has an EMD 645E3 twenty-cylinder engine generating 3,600 hp (2,680 kW) on the same frame as the SD38, SD39, SD40, and SDP40. As of 2023, most SD45s have been retired, scrapped or rebuilt to SD40-2 standards.
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 Great Northern 400 in service at the Minnesota Transportation Museum | |||||||||||||||||||||
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A total of 1,260 were built for American railroads before the SD45-2 replaced it in 1972, along with the related SD45T-2 'Tunnel Motor'.[citation needed]
SD45s had several teething problems. Reliability was not as high as anticipated; the twenty-cylinder prime mover was prone to crankshaft failure from engine block flex. Though it produced 600 horsepower (450 kW) more than the 16-645E3 in the SD40, some railroads felt the extra horsepower was not worth it, even after EMD strengthened the block to eliminate crankshaft failures. At low speeds when tractive effort was adhesion-limited, the SD45 provided no advantage over the SD40.[citation needed]
Buyers included the Burlington Northern, Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, Pennsylvania Railroad, the Great Northern Railway, Union Pacific, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, and the Northern Pacific Railway. Many SD45s still exist, some rebuilt with sixteen-cylinder 645s for lease companies. SD45s and SD45-2s owned by Montana Rail Link retain their 20-cylinder prime movers. Wisconsin Central used to roster a large fleet of SD45s, but its sale to CN has resulted in the retirement of the entire fleet, with mass scrappings. Montana Rail Link is also starting to sell some for scrap.[citation needed]
EMD built seven examples of an experimental modification of the SD45, designated SD45X. The SD45X trialed several new features, including a more powerful EMD 645E3 engine producing up to 4,200 horsepower (3,130 kW) and a newly designed truck intended to have higher adhesion. Changes to the body included the use of different radiator fans and a flat rather than beveled end to the long hood. Six of the SD45X locomotives were purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad, with the seventh kept by EMD.[3]
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- On February 20, 1989, Southern Pacific SD45R locomotive #7502 was involved in a wreck that derailed 48-cars of an 82-car train and three of these cars had contained residue from chlorine, phosphoric acid and hydrocarbons.[4]
- On May 12, 1989, Southern Pacific SD45R locomotives #7551 (formerly #8985) and #7549 (formerly #9038) were both destroyed in the 1989 Cajon Pass Runaway when they crashed along Duffy Street in San Bernardino, California.[5]
SD45u
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway has rebuilt 115 units into what had become the EMD SD45u.[6] They were all renumbered as 5300-5483 between 1979 and 1989.[6][7]
SD44R
In 1981, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company had rebuilt a single SD45 (SP SD45 #8837) into a single locomotive model designated the SD44R and numbered it #7399.
SD45R
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company had rebuilt a total of 167 EMD SD45 units into EMD SD45R diesel locomotives at their own Sacramento Shops under the Southern Pacific's M-99 rebuild program and renumbered their units as 7400 through 7566. Most of them in their SD45 form were classified by the Southern Pacific as EF636-1, EF636-2, EF636-3, EF636-4, EF636-5 and EF636-6, but when they were all rebuilt under the Southern Pacific's M-99 rebuild program, they were classified as EF636LR-1, EF636R-2 and EF636LR-3.[8]
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- Erie Lackawanna No. 3607 is preserved at the St. Louis National Museum of Transportation. Restored to EL colors, this unit is a static display.
- Great Northern 400, named "Hustle Muscle", was the first production SD45. It is preserved by the Great Northern Railway Historical Society, based out of Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was in active service on the Minnesota Transportation Museum's Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway until it suffered a crankshaft failure in its original 20-645E3 engine, requiring a replacement engine to be installed. BNSF Railway overhauled a 20-645E3 engine from a retired ex-ATSF SD45-2 and donated and installed the new engine in January 2019.[citation needed]
- Kansas City Southern No. 1200 is at the Rail Museum of Heroica Matamoros in Matamoros, Mexico on static display
- Norfolk and Western No. 1776, a high-hood unit, is a static display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
- Northern Pacific 3617 is preserved at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. It has been restored to active service.[9][10]
- Seaboard Coast Line No. 2024 is preserved at the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum[11] in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and is currently painted in the Clinchfield Railroad scheme as of December 2017.[12]
- Southern Pacific 7457 is a static display at the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden, Utah.
- Wisconsin Central No. 7525 is at the Illinois Railway Museum and is operable. It is one of two WC SD45 units to be painted in an Operation Lifesaver scheme.
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