The FAKE SD45! (Morrison Knudsen SD40M-2)

In 1993 the Southern Pacific railroad contracted Morrison Knudsen to rebuild 133 SD40M-2s. But in the deal SP would not have to supply any donor locomotives. This started a search for 133 six-axle locomotives which could be rebuilt.
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[@SolidCold]

This video is going to be remastered with better info and graphics.

[@Slim_Slid]

3 SD40M-2's for a long time were awaiting scrapping in Brownsville Texas until BUGX thankfully completed aquisition of the units. The units still retain the original paint schemes but still have the patches. Now the same yard was recently clustered with retired SD70M's that probably have a worse fate. Two of these units were definitely previous SD45R's and the other unit was a SD45M. There was 6 SD45M's from Erie Lackawanna that Southern Pacific purchased from them. These units were built exactly like SDP45's but without generators and had the larger fuel tanks like what was later standard on all of the SD70 series units. Erie Lackawanna specifically wanted their SD45M's just for freight usage only.

[@SolidCold]

Yep, thanks for that information. Really interesting. BUGX's founder Matt Monson and (now former) co-owner Noah (Noah SP) McCann are both big SP fans and have used their company to save a bunch of locomotives, mostly SP. Unfortunately Mr. McCann has been involved in the Blackwell Northern Gateway Railroad controversy and has now been accused of some very horrible things. But it would be real cool to see the SD45M get restored into EL paint as they are such rare locomotives.

[@Slim_Slid]

@@SolidCold The SD40M-2's and SD45M's alike were neat units. Without even knowing in my younger years,I actually saw some of the SD40M-2's a long time ago either repainted or patched. My favorite units were the SD40M-2's that had the flared radiators removed with GP40-2 or SD40-2 radiators on the long hood. Ironically enough,in my profile picture I'm standing in front of an SD45R that was acquired by BUGX. The unit was tied down in Sherman Texas for a couple of years and was owned by Texas Northeastern.

[@SolidCold]

@@Slim_Slid That's pretty cool, unfortunately I haven't seen any SD40M-2s in person but I have seen other locomotives owned by BUGX. Particularly their former SP SD9Es, former UP SD40-2 and a former SSW GP40-2. I really hope these units find their way to California but that is very unlikely as BUGX has been moving equipment out of Cali due to higher property taxes here.

[@Slim_Slid]

@@SolidCold Apparently BUGX has been trying to leave California for awhile and plans on being displaced here within Texas.

[@SolidCold]

@@Slim_Slid Yeah it's unfortunate but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

[@railace3815]

I helped

[@SolidCold]

good job

[@Buckskin1290]

Do you know Kz?

[@SolidCold]

No sorry

[@Buckskin1290]

Ns sub is better and good now..

[@rtrfan7398]

I like the SD40M-2's. But I like the real SD40-2's better. You might know this, but you can tell the difference between a SD40M-2 that was rebuilt from a straight SD40 from a real SD40-2. The real SD40-2 is longer than the SD40M-2. I have a question, did they really turn the V20 engines into V16's? I thought they replaced the V20 with a V16.

[@SolidCold]

Yes, it's very easy to tell apart a M-2 and an actual SD40-2. Also yes, from all my sources it said that they made V16s out of V20s.

[@rtrfan7398]

@@SolidCold also, I noticed some SD45's were rebuilt and looked like SD40's. They did that by taking the long hood from a GP40.

[@SolidCold]

@@rtrfan7398 Yeah, that was another thing I noticed. Very interesting

[@Slim_Slid]

They didn't cut down the 20-645E7's from the SD45's that were rebuilt into SD40M-2's. The 20-645E7's always had crankshaft failures and aggressive internal vibration,most of which contributed to frame damage on alot of the earlier units. The SD45-2's,SD45T-2's,F45's/FP45's, SDP45's,and SD45M's all had the same problems. Most of the issues could've been resolved by reducing the horsepower which is what Wisconsin Central did with their SD45's for example. Southern Pacific had 357 SD45's while 167 units became SD45R's and were rebuilt with 16-645E3's basically down to SD40-2 standards. Most other owners of these units completely replaced the original prime motors with what I just mentioned,much more efficient and cheaper than trying to fix something that already was problematic since the start.

[@user-lq4mo8dw1p]

It's funny how you claim them scrapped ....the ones that didn't go to leasing companies were shipped of to Brasil and work on MRS.

[@SolidCold]

I don't believe any SD40M-2s were sent to Brazil but I could be wrong. But I didn't say they were all scrapped, I said some were but others were sold to other operators. You could be mistaking other SD45/SD40 rebuilds that were designated as SD40M-2s.

[@user-lq4mo8dw1p]

@@SolidCold MRS most certainly purchased some..I'm not sure the count as my roster is at home.... locomotives shipped to Brasil and other countries for some reason show up as scrapped

[@SolidCold]

@@user-lq4mo8dw1p I'll do some further research but thanks for the info!

[@user-lq4mo8dw1p]

@@SolidCold like for instance the C30-7, B30-7 and a few B23-7 s were termed scrapped but shipped to Brasil....a few in the broad gauge line still were BN paint. I just noticed a lot of info stops at NREX or LTEX...and from there it's hard....when I visited my cousin's in Brasil that work for Rumo ALL the drive me around to MRS and I did see at least 3, with a few ex CP straight SD40 models. I model America Latina Logistica, not MRS so I don't have the info with me, when I retired from the railway I got into trucking....

[@user-ku5wk1yy9x]

Why then are you calling them fake sd45s?! Any body with brains knows that these were once straight sd45s before they were rebuilt! You can make one by simply taking the 20cyclinder engine out, and putting a 16cyclinder645 engine in the underframe! , and put dash 2 electrical components in it, change the traction motors, and rebuild the electrical cabinet! AND then, you will have a LOCOMOTIVE, that still has the sd45carbody! Plus, you will have a reliable, and dependable LOCOMOTIVE!

[@SolidCold]

Sorry if I mislead you. But what the title was trying to say is that it's an SD45 that isn't really an SD45 on the inside. On hindsight I should have made it a little different, but hey. Everyone makes mistakes.