Nostalgia & History > Looking back at Conrail's SDP45's

Conrail inherited 32 SDP45's from the Erie-Lackawanna when Big Blue was formed back in 1976. I guess that actually they were considered SD45M's since in place of steam generator equipment in the rear compartment, they had concrete ballast there, instead. Whatever they were called, they still looked great, even better than the stock SD45, at least in my opinion. I thought I'd post some shots of them back in the day. I wasn't really thinking about it, but I guess you could call these "Friday Flares."


It's April in 1979 and a westbound Conrail freight is getting on the Porter Branch at Porter Jct, IN. A big beautiful 6683 leads another SDP45 that still wears the paint of its original owner.

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A couple more SDP45's to look at.

First up is the 6690 posing for us at IHB's yard in Riverdale, IL. Jan, 1979

Second shot is of helper power with 6691 leading headed to give a hand to another westbound for HorseShoe Curve. Taken in August of 1978

Finally, it's June 1979, and the ex EL BiCen 6669 is still wearing its red, white, and blue as it heads east out of the IHB yard at Blue Island. In the background, you can make out a Missouri Pacific SD40-2 and caboose that had just delivered a transfer run from Yard Center in Dolton.

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Those SDP's carried the ball for the E-L in their day.

TJY

Absolutely incredible to me how terrible something can end up looking after three-four years of (I'm assuming) deferred maintenance. LOTS of character, but that sure doesn't look like a "new" locomotive.

- Jeff Carlson

WrongMain Wrote:
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> A couple more SDP45's to look at.

> Finally, it's June 1979, and the ex EL BiCen 6669
> is still wearing its red, white, and blue as it
> heads east out of the IHB yard at Blue Island. In
> the background, you can make out a Missouri
> Pacific SD40-2 and caboose that had just delivered
> a transfer run from Yard Center in Dolton.

WrongMain Wrote:
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> Conrail inherited 32 SDP45's from the
> Erie-Lackawanna when Big Blue was formed back in
> 1976. I guess that actually they were considered
> SD45M's since in place of steam generator
> equipment in the rear compartment, they had
> concrete ballast there, instead. Whatever they
> were called, they still looked great, even better
> than the stock SD45, at least in my opinion. I
> thought I'd post some shots of them back in the
> day. I wasn't really thinking about it, but I
> guess you could call these "Friday Flares."
>
>
> It's April in 1979 and a westbound Conrail
> freight is getting on the Porter Branch at Porter
> Jct, IN. A big beautiful 6683 leads another SDP45
> that still wears the paint of its original owner.

Nice photos! CR inherited 33 SDP's. The EL had 34 but lost the 3637 in September of 1975 due to a wreck in the Delaware Water Gap

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GREAT stuff!!! Thanks for posting!

Those are awesome shots of some awesome locomotives. I love those big EMD flares!

Excellent photos---thanks for sharing them!!