Southern Pacific Historic Diesels Volume 12: EMD SD45 Locomotives

Shade Tree Books. Softcover. New. In the era of diesel locomotives, the railroad industry had been demanding a quantum leap in locomotive technology. Southern Pacific and Union Pacific spent millions of dollars, essentially to drive home the point to the locomotive builders that their current products were inadequate for current conditions. The EMD engineering team went back to the drawing boards and essentially re-invented their product. On the strength of EMDs test labs tours, important customers (including the Great Northern, Santa Fe, and the Southern Pacific) took a leap of faith and placed significant orders for a new locomotive none had seen in action: the SD45. EMD built 1,260 SD45 locomotives between May 1966 and December 1971; the Southern Pacific and Cotton Belt purchased 356 of these, an impressive 28.3% of total production. Southern Pacific quickly adopted the SD45 as the flagship of its locomotive fleet. The Operating Department finally had a reliable EMD diesel-electric that could run like a deer and pull like a mule, taking advantage of their new productivity tool to both accelerate schedules and increase train size. Here is the story of this remarkable locomotive on the Southern Pacific. Contents: Ch. 1: Introduction, Ch. 2: Developing the Concept: Class EF636-1, Ch. 3: Cotton Belts SD45 Locomotives, Ch. 4: The SDP45 Locomotives, Ch. 5: Refining the SD45 Concept, Ch. 6: The SD45X Locomotives, Ch. 7: Airfoil Experiments, Ch. 8: The SD45R Upgrading Program, Ch. 9: Paint Scheme Evolution, Ch. 10: The Graduates. Shade Tree Books, softcover, 128 pages, 8.5 x 11 x .5 in., b&w photographs with color cover.