Nostalgia & History > SP "Daylight" SD45 #7399, July 1983

In my pursuit of the hobby of model railroading, I certainly buy more than I have seen on our nation's railroads since I started serious railfanning in the mid-60s. I simply don't have the discipline--get enough of that at work! Still, it is nice to see one of your favorite encounters with a unique piece of motive power equipment modeled with a reasonable degree of fidelity. Thus I was very pleased to find the famous Southern Pacific SD45 rendered in
"Daylight" colors in the new 2013 Vol 1 MTH catalog.

Here are several images of the "Daylight" paint schemed SD45#7399, created by industrial designer Chester Mack for SP. (He also did the design for the entire Freedom Train in the mid-70s.) I
encountered this locomotive in Joy, Kansas, about 30 miles southeast of Dodge City at 1000, 27 July 83. It was on the former Rock Island, recently purchased and restored by the Southern Pacific, hence its
railfan moniker "Cotton Rock." Two TOFC/Auto rack westbounds passed this location within the hour. But I waited almost two hours to finally get a shot of an eastbound approaching the stabbed westbound.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/12 01:45 by captrr.

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Finally, the meet occurred at 1120, 27 July 1983.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/12 01:46 by captrr.

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Colorful images! Never had the chance to catch the 7399 in Daylight colors, but did see it switch out cars at Gemco in it's kodachrome motif.
Thanks for sharing these.

I think that design would have worked if SP used black paint in lieu of grey.

captrr Wrote:
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> Here are several images of the "Daylight" paint
> schemed SD45#7399, created by industrial designer
> Chester Mack for SP. (

The paint design used on the 4 MK TE70-4s former U25Bs was designed by Chester Mack, but I think the paint on 7399 and 7342 was the result of some far less imaginative fiddling of the daylight colors by the folks at 65 Market.

Elizabeth

Wasn't 7399 actually an SD40?

AZSP Wrote:
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> Wasn't 7399 actually an SD40?

Nope

Actually, it started life as an SD45, but was re-classified as an SD44 when re-built in 1981.

From Richard Percy's SP Modelers website:

Externally, this unit is identical to an SD45R, internally it is/was one of a kind, having an EMD V-16 645, rated at 3000hp. It has since been confirmed that this unit was fitted with a V-16 engine, which agrees with Garmany, who states (in SP Dieselization) that it received a new V-16 3000hp for evaluation.