I never knew there was one! How come they don’t talk about them that much???
Up here in Canada - CN runs a bunch of them - they are rebuilds of SD 40’s by GE/ Alsthom – plain grey in colour with GCFX markings – in the 6030- 6079 number series .
Having never heard of these, can you describe what makes them unique?
They were rebuilt with 645E3 prime movers and have upgraded electronics. I think they use microprocessor controls, hence the -3.
The immediate offering after the SD40-2, was the SD50. Somehow the CN didn’t get it. The Series 16V645 prime mover was still in vouge, however, the Canadian road stalled on the option. The Seaboard System went go on over one-hundred units, with an option to buy more, and then opted out!. This left EMD with units on the floor, and a serious headache, of what to do. The RioGrande was sold on these units, and why their engines had cab mounted SCL horns applied. And…so… somewhere along the way, CN got there SD40-2’s, to kind’a keep things going. The RioGrande, re-mounted the horns, at re-build time. what was the question? ACJ.
CN bought and still has both SD50’s and SD60’s - the 5400-class SD50F’s and 5500-class SD60F’s with full-cowl carbodies.
CP, on the other hand, did skip the SD50 and the SD60, ordering cowl-carbody SD40-2F’s in 1989, the last SD40-2’s built. There are, however, Soo Line SD50’s and SD60M’s on the CP roster.
The cowl bodies mentioned above offered maintenance benefits in winter, but fell out of vogue in the 1990’s because they were substantially more costly. CN actually ordered their first batch of C44-9’s as cowl-bodied C44-9M’s, but changed the order to a larger order of more conventional C44-9W’s at the same total cost.
Yes, CN did opt in on the SD50, however the build date of the last SD40-2’s to be built, has a curious twist. For some respectable reason, CN stalled on the SD40-2, probably price oriented, and the Electro-Motive Division conceded to build a number of the Four-Oh Series power, because CN paid their dues. I’ve always admired this occurance, and have a video, a Pentrex SD 40-2’s in the Canadian Rockies. A Seaboard Coast Line engineer, Johnny Moore, retired, because of the occurance of the SD50 frame, and told me it was because of the possibility of catastrophic collision survival. Remember, the larger motive power, brings on other factors. ACJ.
Ya know I’ve never heard of a SD40-3 either, . … humm . . . interesting. I don’t think my railroad CSX has any, correct me if I’m wrong 
They do have a lot of SD50s though, that they aquired from the good old Chessie System.
As mentioned before EMD never had an SD40-3 (all are rebuilds), I don’t know if any Class 1’s own any.
The Illinois Central as 19 SD40-3s rated at 3200 HP. They are numbers 6200-6204,6250-6265. 6253-6256 and 6261-6265 are painted in the CN-IC scheme.
Are former Chessie System SD50 # 8558 and CSX SD40-2 8888 still in service, when did they come out of the factory and are there any modifications?
Yes, both are currently active.
Was lineside today - and saw SD40-3’s – GCFX 6045 and 6063 - eastbound- leading CN train 201 intermodal doublestacks from Vancouver .Not common to see them as lead units these days
When will EMD be releasing the SD40-4?
keep asking, keep learning
EMD wont be releasing the SD40-4. The 40 Series is not in production anymore. If you read the other posts you’ll see that the SD40-3’s were rebuilds from other companies; EMD never made one. There are Dash-4 locomotives out there. The GP38M-4, for example, is a de-turboed GP35 rebuilt to GP38 standards with the Dash-4 indicating a rebuilt locomotive model earlier than the designation.
Yes,CSX owns SD40-3’s!But they were rebuilt by MK and are therefor desigantated SD40M-2.CSX designates them SD40-2!!![:D]UP does too!
Only UP, and a few leasors have SD40M-2’s.