Is this a rumor or is it true that one of those sleek EMD cowls are running again? I thought that except for the MRL unit, all F45s had been scrapped, with a few having their cabs cannabilized for uses on GP40s and F40s on some commuter lines. I know Tri-Rail had at least one F40 with one of those cabs.
If it’s true, I’m glad as I’m a fan of the big cowls. [8D] However, it does make me wonder why anyone would want to run a fuel slurping 20 cylinder locomotive like this when the newer SD50 and 60s series, which even though they are now aging, are still much more fuel and mechanically efficient.
I remember reading that Santa Fe had crankshaft failure problems with some of their 45 series cowls.
I hope it’s not a rumor. I am also a cowl fan. I never saw a GN / BN cowl but I used to see lots on the Santa Fe. I miss those. I hope one of each of those (FP45,F45,SDF40-2) get preserved.
NYS&W F45 number 3636 (photo above) has been in the news lately as being brought back into service after a few years of hibernation due to mechanical problems. I too am a big fan of the “great cowls” and hope we see more of them, but not likely I’m afraid.
NYS&W 3636 is an ex Burlington Northern unit,6644 (I hope). I just saw her the other day on the CSX run through Q404 leaving Frontier for DeWitt, LEADING yet! This unit is an improvement over the SD40T2s with “patch paint”.
BTW: I’ve read where on some western railroads; EMD 45 series locomotives would have their huge 20 cylinder prime mover engine removed and replaced with rebuilt EMD 40 series locomotive prime movers from wrecked SD40s or SD40-2s.
The Illinois Railway Museum has ATSF number 92, an FP45 in warbonnet colors at the museum in good and I believe operable condition (may be wrong about operable).
Mechanically, F45s were the same as an SD45, so 3600 hp would have been standard. Some railroads may have tinkered with the horsepower settings (WC seems to be a prime candidate), other than a replacement with a 16-cyclinder engine.
Yes, as Fuzzy stated they were rated at that horsepower. The F45, essentially, was a 20 cylinder SD45 with a streamlined carbody mounted on it. There were some minor modifications, of course.
Interesting info I read about the 45 series cowls running on certain portions of Santa Fe’s high speed line. Hopefully someone here remembers it. (I hope I’m still remembering it correctly).
There were comments posted from locomotive crews. Apparently whenever these units reached speeds between 70 and 73 mph, they would rock very noticeably to the point of making engineers nervous, yet, when running above and below these speeds they were o.k!
As mentioned on another post, it had a lot to do with the track’s “plastic memory” which didn’t affect the SD45s, but affected their sister cowl units. Had railroad professionals baffled. One possibility was that it was due to the way the cowls were balanced. Was pretty interesting.
This was after Amtrak had problems with their SDP40fs, which ironically proved to be reliable after Santa Fe rebuilt the 18 they got from Amtrak in a “swap deal” with CF7s.
nanaimo73 Hey some of those pictures are ones that I took when I was going to school in Bozeman, Montana. Growing up in San Diego, I used to go up to the Cajon Pass and see the cowls there, then after they vanished from the Santa Fe Fleet I thought that I would never see them again. I then was up checking out MSU one week and thought that I would go see what was on the tracks in town, and it was then that I decovered that MRL was using them still. I couldn’t tell you how excited I was, it just might of been the deciding factor to go to school in Montana? [:D][:D]
