Western Railroad Discussion > SD-45 vs. SD-45e

Hi Folks,

Can someone tell me the difference between an SD45 and an SD45e? Is it internal, external or both?

Thanks!

Brian.

Espee once had an SD45 rebuild program. The locomotives received an extensive overhaul/rebuild and had the prime movers derated to 3200hp. The finished product was called an SD45E to note the rebuild and they were numbered in the 7400 and 7500 series. There really is no external difference between the two before or after rebuild, except for the numbers. The original SD45s were numbered 8800 and higher.

I do not know what other railroads or rebuild shops might have done however.

The SD-45 was the stock 3,600 hp locomotive sold by EMD with a pair of six wheel trucks (C-C). It had a 20 cylinder engine and the big flared radiators. SP had a bunch of them!

The SP had a long history of both building their own locomotives and rebuilding older ones for increased reliability; the deisel program dating back to the ALCO PA-1 units in the arly 1960s.

The GP-9 fleet was rebuilt as were the SD-9 and SD-7 locomotives. To differentiate between rebuilt and un-rebuilt locomotives, the rebuilds were given either the suffix "R" or "E"; I believe that at one point the use of two different suffixes indicated an ownership relationship between a leasing company affiliated with the SP and straight ownership.

When it was time to rebuild the SD-45 fleet, they got the same treatment. Externally there could be some minor changes like removal of a headlight or a truck swap, but I don't have my books handy. Jim Strapac had a series of books on the SP motive power fleet and covered this in great depth. If you can locate one of these books, I'm sure that it will have everything that you ever wanted to know - and then some - about the program.

when SP rebuilted there SD45's they added the 'E' to denote that there electrical system was also upgraded to EMD's dash 2 standards.

Ahhh! Makes sense! So these units are still true SD45s, but they have upgraded electronics, right? They have been derated in hp or any other funny business, have they?

Brian.

According to Strapac's 1981 "Southern Pacific Review" book, the SD45E was "virtually indistinguishable from garden variety SD45s but delivers 3,200 horsepower in a move calculated by SP to add significantly to the V20's useful life" which it has.

18 of those SP rebuilt units, 7540 - - - 7559, were bought by Montana Rail Link in 12/1996, run through CEECO's shop in Tacoma, WA and placed in service, cruddy as they appeared. Most of them have since been repainted into MRL's blue and black scheme, renumbered to MRL 314 - 331, classed as SD45-2s, and serve the purposes of a mountain railroad with two major mountain passes, with helpers, very well.
dnuck

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Doug,
7399 was more unique than the 7400's. It was SP's only SD40-2 conversion from an SD45 (until the MK rebuilds in the mid 90's). This unit has a 16 cylinder 3000 hp 645 engine. It was classed as an "SD44E" UP retired it but reaquired it through NRE and had it refurbished. It is now rostered as an SD40-2.
Larry

Larry576 wrote:

> Doug,
> 7399 was more unique than the 7400's. It was SP's only SD40-2
> conversion from an SD45 (until the MK rebuilds in the mid
> 90's). This unit has a 16 cylinder 3000 hp 645 engine. It was
> classed as an "SD44E" UP retired it but reaquired it through
> NRE and had it refurbished. It is now rostered as an SD40-2.

So...does it now wear yellow and grey?
What number is it?

UP7399 Not In Equip Register

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SP7399 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines

Yes it is yellow/gray - should have a 2800 series number now - I don't know the exact one however...
Larry

7399 became UP 2816, eventually I think. It is now out of work- returned to LLPX and stored on the BRC with the others.

Well, asides from the road number, there were a couple of spotting differences for many of the SP SD45s that went through the GRIP (rebuild) program at Sacramento..

1) Almost all SP SD45 rebuilds received a full light cluster (twin beam gyralite, plus single red gyralite) on the rear of the long hood. Those that did not (toward the end of the rebuild program, received just the red gyralite, or an "oscitrol" (simulated gyralite) setup on the back end. None escaped WITHOUT any sort of additional warning light bracket on the back above the standard headlight, to my knowledge..

2) Also, those SD45s that had an L-shaped engineers window before rebuilding lost that during the rebuilding. Yeah.. I know.. SP 8800-8844 (the first order of original SP SD45s) never had the L-shaped window to begin with.

3) No rear snowplows anymore.

But generally, the 7400-7500 number series was the giveaway..

Best Regards,
Harry Wong

Last 2816 I saw was this version, March of 2001 on hump duty at Englewood.

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Nope. Thats a deturbocharged ex MP SD40-2. It should now be UPY 816. The 2816 (nee SP 7399) should still like an SD45.
Larry

Nope, that's not the one.

Thanks to UP's crazy renumbering plans, this is a different 2816, an SD38-2 rebuilt from a former MoPac SD40-2 which has since been renumbered to UPY 816. The one from late 2001-a few weeks ago still looked like an SD45, with flexicoil trucks (not HT-C) and flared radiators.

-Tim

For one thing the "E" stood for SP Equipment Trust, not electrical. It was a tax dodge in the early seventies that went away with the 1977 tax year. Anything rebuilt after 1977 was an "R" suffix; which included the last GP9's and SD9's and everything after that including ALL of the GP35's, SD40's, SD45's and SD45T-2'. Check out the 1995 SP Motive Power Annual by Four Ways West; it lists all of the "E" and "R" units. Also, most of the SD45R's kept their 3600 HP; a few were derated to 3200 HP.

Peter Arnold