The EMD SD45-2 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 su ...

(EMD). EMD built 136 locomotives between 1972–1974, primarily for the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

(ATSF). The SD45-2 was an improved version of the

EMD 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 ...

; the primary visual difference is the lack of flared radiators on the SD45-2.

Design

Part of the

EMD Dash 2 The EMD Dash 2 is a line of diesel-electric locomotives introduced by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division (EMD) on January 1, 1972. Designations of these models were those of the former models with "-2" added (e.g., the SD40 was replaced b ...

line, the SD45-2 was an upgraded

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 ...

. Like the SD45, the SD45-2 had an

EMD 645E3 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 ve ...

20-

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 producing . The main spotting difference between an SD45 and an SD45-2 was the long hood and the rear radiator. On the SD45 the long hood is flared whereas on the SD45-2 it is vertical and the rear cooling fans are more spread out on the top of the rear of the long hood. This unit used the same frame as the

EMD SD40-2 The EMD SD40-2 is a C-C diesel-electric locomotive built by EMD from 1972 to 1989. The SD40-2 was introduced in January 1972 as part of EMD's '' Dash 2'' series, competing against the GE U30C and the ALCO Century 630. Although higher-horsepowe ...

and EMD SD38-2. The largest owner of the SD45-2 was the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe with 90 units, the Clinchfield had 18 units, Seaboard Coast line had 15 units and

Erie Lackawanna The Erie Lackawanna Railway , known as the Erie Lackawanna Railroad until 1968, was formed from the 1960 merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The official motto of the line was "The Friendly Service Route" ...

rostered 13 units. A few cabless SD45-2Bs were built by Santa Fe from units undergoing remanufacturing. In all but one case (5510), the

dynamic brake Dynamic braking is the use of an electric traction motor as a generator when slowing a vehicle such as an electric or diesel-electric locomotive. It is termed " rheostatic" if the generated electrical power is dissipated as heat in brake grid ...

s were moved to the opposite end of the hood from the

radiator Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

s; they were originally near the center of the hood. With no cab, these B-units are controlled from other locomotives. In September 2015,

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

revealed SD45-2 #1700, which was painted back to its Erie Lackawanna color scheme at Chattanooga, Tennessee. This is the second unit from an NS predecessor painted back into its original colors.

Preservation

On August 31, 2018,

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

donated former SD45-2 #8954 (ex: SCL #2049) to the

Southeastern Railway Museum The Southeastern Railway Museum ( initialised SRM, AAR code SMRX) is a railroad museum located in Duluth, Georgia, in suburban Atlanta. The museum was founded in 1970 by the Atlanta Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. There are ...

in Duluth, GA, making it the first SD45-2 to be preserved. On October 6th, 2021,

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

donated SD45-2 #6484 (ex: ATSF #5704, one of 5 units to receive a bicentennial scheme) to the

Southern California Railway Museum The Southern California Railway Museum (SCRM, reporting mark OERX), formerly known as the Orange Empire Railway Museum, is a railroad museum in Perris, California, United States. It was founded in 1956 at Griffith Park in Los Angeles before movin ...

in Perris, CA, and is being restored to its ATSF Bicentennial scheme.

Original Owners

Notes

References

* * * Sarberenyi, Robert.
EMD SD45-2 Original Owners
'. * Marta,H.A., Mels,K.D. and Itami,G.S. (1972), Design features and performance characteristics of the high traction three axle truck, ASME paper no. 72-RT-3.

External links

SD45-2 C-C locomotives Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1972 Freight locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Locomotives with cabless variants {{diesel-loco-stub