The EMD SD38 is a 6-axle

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conv ...

built by

General Motors Electro-Motive Division Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its sub ...

between May 1967 and October 1971. It had an

EMD 645 The EMD 645 is a family of diesel engines that was designed and manufactured by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors. While the 645 series was intended primarily for locomotive, marine and stationary engine use, one 16-cylinder versio ...

16-

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...

engine generating , compared to the turbocharged EMD 645E3 V-16 engine that produced 3000 horsepower. Aside from the 3-axle trucks and a longer frame to accommodate them, the SD38 was identical to the

GP38 The EMD GP38 is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between January 1966 and December 1971. The locomotive's prime mover was an EMD 645 16-cylinder engine that generated . The company built 70 ...

; the SD38 had the same frame as the SD39,

SD40 SD40 may refer to: * Canon PowerShot SD40, a digital camera * EMD SD40, a diesel-electric locomotive * South Dakota Highway 40 * SD-40 alcohol, ethanol denatured by adding denatonium benzoate Denatonium, usually available as denatonium benzoate (u ...

and

SD45 The SD45 is a six-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between 1965 and 1971. It has an EMD 645E3 twenty-cylinder engine generating on the same frame as the SD38, SD39, SD40, and SDP40. As of 2022, mos ...

. 52 were built for

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

railroads, one was built for a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

railroad, four were exported to a mining firm in Jamaica and seven were exported to a mining firm in Venezuela. The SD38 was succeeded by a Dash 2 version called the

EMD SD38-2 The EMD SD38-2 is a model of six-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by Electro-Motive Diesel, General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) from 1972 to 1979. EMD built 90 of these medium road-switchers, which were used in both yard and mainlin ...

Original Owners

An M version of SD38 was built for the Brazil Federal Railways (

RFFSA The Rede Ferroviária Federal, Sociedade Anônima (RFFSA, pronounced as ''Refesa'') () was the State-owned national railway company of Brazil created from ''Brazilian Federal Law #3.115'' on March 16, 1957, after several railroads were nationaliz ...

- Rede Ferroviária Federal S. A.). Forty of a passenger version, the SDP38, were built for the Korean National Railways in May-July 1967. The units were numbered 6351–6390. None have been preserved as of January of 2021.

References

* * Sarberenyi, Robert.
EMD SD38, SD38AC, and SDP38 Original Owners
'. Retrieved on August 27, 2006

External links

SD38 C-C locomotives Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1967 Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Freight locomotives {{Diesel-loco-stub