| EMD SD45 4351 at the Chicago Great Western locomotive facility in Cicero, Illinois on March 26, 1966, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Built in December 1965 (c/n 31693) on EMD Order 5696, it is powered by a 20 cylinder 645E3 prime mover producing 3600 horsepower. Eventually it was sold to the IC, becoming number 7000, the only SD45 on IC's roster. It was scrapped in June 1987. The unit is clearly under test, there are cables coming out of the cab window and wrapped around the safety railings along the long hood, and there is a gentleman concerned about something behind the engineer's door. According to the January 1993 issue of Trains Magazine (page 54), in a six year production run, 1255 units were built for USA customers. No SD45's were built new for Canada or Mexico, however, EMD built three more demonstrators, #'s 4352-4354, which were sold to the D&H, were swapped to the E-L for GE power, went back to the D&H, and ended up in Mexico. The first production SD45 was sold to the GN for $276,000.00, numbered 400 and given the name "Hustle Muscle", a name carried over when it was repainted BN green and renumbered to 6430, recently restored to GN paint and number. |
