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]
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.[3]
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.[4]
Rebuilds
SD45u
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway has rebuilt 115 units into what had become the EMD SD45u.[5] They were all renumbered as 5300-5483 between 1979 and 1989.[5][6]
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.[7]
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]
^Glischinski, Steve (15 September 2015). "NP SD45 appears on a photo freight in Minnesota". Trains. Retrieved 16 September 2015. (subscription required)
^"Museum volunteers return Northern Pacific SD45 to operation". 11 March 2021.
^"Seaboard Coast Line SD45 being restored for museum". Trains. 9 September 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2015. (subscription required)
Solomon, Brian (2014). GE and EMD Locomotives: The Illustrated History. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-0-7603-4612-9.
Diesel Spotter's Guide, Volume 2. Kalmbach, 1994.
White, Dr. W. J. How Diesel Electric Locomotives Operate. Peat. 1998.
Bibliography
"Railroad Accident Report – Derailment of Southern Pacific Transportation Company Freight Train on May 12, 1989, and Subsequent Rupture of Calnev Petroleum Pipeline on May 25, 1989 – San Bernardino, California" (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. 19 June 1990. Retrieved 3 August 2006.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to EMD SD45 locomotives.