Western Railroad Discussion > SDP45 Help?

A few days ago, while working at home, I swear I saw an SDP45 in UP paint. Presumably an ex-SP 3200, it was in the consist of an Eastbound going by Marcel in the Tehachapis. Was I mistaken? I wasn't close enough to get a number. Does anyone know of the status of these units?
Thanks.
Les Combs

There were a few SDP's among a group of SD45's rebuilt to SD40-2 specs by Morrison-Knudsen during the mid-1990s and sold/leased to SP. I'll bet you saw one of those.

All the SP SDP45s have been scrapped. What you saw was an ex-SP MK rebuild. At least one of them has been painted into UP.

Ahh -
But is it truely ex-SP? I thought they scrapped all SP SDP45s. Maybe its an ex-Eire-Lackawanna? MK rebuilt a handful of those (as 3000 HP) and sent them to SP, twix UP inherited.
Dave in Missoula

The giveaway here is the rear of the hood. The SP SDP-45s were flat (steam generator there) whereas the ex-DLW units have the standard SD-45 "taper". The Lacawanna units were built with the longer SDP frame to hold a larger fuel tank to take advantage of lower fuel prices at the RR's end ternminals. A few cents difference per gallon really adds up when you multiply by thousands!

Interesting to note that at least one of these critters got yaller'ed.

Like a previous post mentioned, all of the SP 32xx-series SDP45's have met the torch. What you saw was one of the 133 SD40M-2 M-K rebuilds SP got in 1994. Six of them were rebuilt from former E-L SD45M's; not really SDP45's, since they were never built with steam generators. E-L got only them for the larger fuel tank the SDP frame would allow for.

-Nameless Modeler

What you probably saw was UP 2768. As mentioned previously, it's one of several SD40M-2's rebuilt from former EL SDP45's. As far as I know, this is the only one painted UP.