The SD26 were

EMD SD24 The EMD SD24 was a six-axle ( C-C) diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division of La Grange, Illinois between July 1958 and March 1963. A total of 224 units were built for customers in the United States, comprising ...

diesel locomotives rebuilt by 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 ...

between January 1973 and January 1978. In an effort to spare the cost of purchasing new motive power, the Santa Fe elected to expand on the success of its

CF7 The Santa Fe CF7 is an EMD F-unit railroad locomotive that has had its streamlined carbody removed and replaced with a custom-made, "general purpose" body in order to adapt the unit for switching duty. All of the conversions were performed by the ...

and other capital rebuild programs and extend the life of its fleet of 80 aging SD24s by rebuilding them at its

San Bernardino, California San Bernardino (; Spanish for "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 cen ...

Shops. The rebuilt locomotives saw service throughout much of the Santa Fe system. One unit, the 4625, was wrecked in August 1974 shortly after rebuild. Another 44 units were retired by Santa Fe in 1985 and replaced with state-of-the-art equipment, while a year later the remaining 35 units were sold to Guilford Rail System (now

Pan Am Railways Pan Am Railways, Inc. (PAR) is a subsidiary of CSX Corporation that operates Class II regional railroads covering northern New England from Mattawamkeag, Maine, to Rotterdam Junction, New York. Pan Am Railways is primarily made up of former Clas ...

). As of 2012, all SD26s have been scrapped.

History

Development

The first locomotive to go through the rebuild program was Santa Fe #4533, which entered the San Bernardino shops in January 1973. Its four roof-mounted "

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

" air reservoir tanks were moved to allow for the installation of a new inertial air filtering system (SD24s lacked a central air filtration system), which was located directly behind the locomotive cab. The resulting "blower bulge" or "hump" became the most obvious visual identifier of the SD26. Two of the air tanks were reinstalled toward the back roof on either side of the radiator section fans, while the other pair was situated on either side of 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 r ...

fans. The original EMD 16-567D3 engine was rebuilt with

645 __NOTOC__ Year 645 ( DCXLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 645 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

power assemblies. Coupled with extensive electrical system upgrades, the horsepower rating was increased to 2,625 and gave rise to the ''26'' designation. The SD24's unreliable electrical system was replaced with upgraded circuitry, consisting of new wiring harnesses and EMD's new " Dash 2" circuit cards. The unit was retrofitted with extended-range dynamic brakes as well. The footboards were reconfigured, the locomotive bell was removed from the front pilot and mounted midway between the radiator fans and dynamic brake fans, and a roof-mounted

beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

and cab

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

system was installed. The unit retained its one-piece windshield and nose-mounted

classification lights Trains include a variety of types of lights, for safety, illumination, and communicating train status. The most universal type of light is the Headlamp, headlight, which is included on the front of locomotives, and frequently on the rear as well. ...

. When all of the modifications were complete, the locomotive was given a fresh coat of ''Yellowbonnet'' paint and reassigned as #4633 (all SD26s were given a 100-place "bump" in numbering to reflect their new class). Over the next 5 years, all of the SD24s on Santa Fe's roster would undergo similar modifications.

Subsequent alterations

In the early 1980s, most of the stock one-piece windshields were replaced with two-piece units similar to those used on the

EMD GP20 An EMD GP20 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division between November 1959 and April 1962. Power was provided by an EMD 567D2 16-cylinder turbocharged engine which generated . EMD was initially hesi ...

, a move intended to bring standardization of windshield glass to several classes of Santa Fe locomotives and thereby reduce maintenance stockpiles. A "second generation"-style traction motor blower housing was fitted to the left side of later rebuilds. Ten of the units (#4601, #4603–#4607, #4612, #4617, #4618, and #4675) were wired to operate with "

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...

" units for work in the

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

and Barstow hump yards and flat yards throughout the system. Ten others (#4611, #4627, #4629, #4640, #4645, #4648, #4667, #4674, #4677, and #4678) were configured with Locotrol Remote Control Equipment (RCE) for use in

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

potash Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.

, and molten

sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

unit train A unit train, also called a block train or a trainload service, is a train in which all cars (wagons) carry the same commodity and are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route. They are disti ...

service.

In service

The majority of SD26s were placed in both general freight and intermodal service in the Kansas City — La Junta — Albuquerque — El Paso freight pool, while others spent their years running up and down the railroad's Coast Lines. The units became known as "slushbuckets" among

railfan A railfan, rail buff or train buff (American English), railway enthusiast, railway buff or trainspotter (Australian/British English), or ferroequinologist is a person who is recreationally interested in trains and rail transport systems. Rail ...

s in reference to their distinctive turbocharger sound, which was considerably more subdued than that produced by either the GP40 or

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 ...

. #4625 was wrecked near Rustler Springs, Texas in August 1974 and was subsequently sent to the scrap yard.

Afterlife

Changing philosophies regarding motive power expenditures led the Santa Fe to begin trimming its SD26 roster in the Spring of 1985, when 44 of the locomotives were retired and traded to EMD in exchange for 15 new GP50s. The other 35 units were sold at the end of 1986 to Guilford Rail System (now known as

). As of 2012, the last SD26, ST 643 (formerly ATSF 4673), was scrapped.

References

* Includes background information and a photo gallery. * * * *

External links

SD26
from "Selected Portfolios of Scale Models" created by Gregg Fuhriman. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sd26 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway locomotives C-C locomotives Electro-Motive Diesel locomotives Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1973 Rebuilt locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Scrapped locomotives