Santa Susana Railroad Historical Society

EMD FP45/F45

Historical Background:

The EMD FP45 is a cowl unit type of C-C diesel locomotive produced in the United States by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. It was produced beginning in 1967 at the request of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, which did not want its prestigious Super Chief and other passenger trains pulled by freight style hood unit locomotives, which have external walkways. The Santa Fe preferred a cowl unit.

The EMD SDP45 was a good passenger locomotive, but to the Santa Fe it did not look the part. EMD therefore designed a lightweight "cowl" body to cover the locomotive, though it did not, as in earlier cab units, provide any structural strength, which remained in the frame. The cowl provided sleeker looks, better aerodynamics at speed, and allowed the crew to enter the engine compartment en route for diagnostics and maintenance.
The Santa Fe purchased nine of the locomotives (road numbers 90 through 98), and the Milwaukee Road bought five for its passenger service (road numbers 1 through 5). Such low production was feasible and profitable for EMD since the locomotive was fundamentally just a re-clothed SDP45. Power, as in the SDP45, was from a V20 645E3 engine (or "prime mover") developing 3600 horsepower (2700 kW).
When Amtrak took over passenger service, the FP45s were reassigned to fast freight service, especially Santa Fe's Super C high-speed intermodal run. They were soon repainted from their original red and silver Warbonnet scheme to the standard blue and yellow freight scheme when the steam generators were removed and they were permanently assigned to the freight pool. In June, 1989 two of the units, #5992 and #5998, were repainted once more in a modified version of the Warbonnet scheme (this time, displaying Santa Fe in large, red letters "billboard"–style across the side) and re–designated as #101 and #102. The units reentered service on July 4 as part of the new "Super Fleet" — the first Santa Fe units to be so decorated for freight service. The six remaining units were thereafter similarly repainted and renumbered, and remained in this scheme (some re–lettered BNSF after the merger) until their retirement in the late 1990s, after some 30 years of service.
A freight-only derivative, the EMD F45, was sold in greater numbers (86) to the Santa Fe, the Great Northern Railroad, and the Burlington Northern Railroad. Amtrak bought a similar passenger locomotive based on the 3000 horsepower (2200 kW) SDP40, the EMD SDP40F.

I was very surprised when I opened the new Athearn FP45/F45 boxes.  Gone are the plastic molded cartons that hold the engine in place.  Instead the engines are mounted on a piece of wood and held by two screws.  This allows the engine to float in the center of the box preventing any damage to the engine.  The challenge was finding the right screwdriver and not stripping the head of the screw.  Once I off the piece of wood the tank needed to be screwed on the bottom.  In the process one of the tank fillers broke off and had to glue the piece.  Overall I like this new concept, just have to remember to bring the right screwdriver and not strip the screw holes.

New Athearn

Brass Overland

New Athearn

Brass Overland

Highly recommend! I'm buying more from the next series.