Dinosaur roars through New York

This afternoon 3/25, at about 5:20pm, CSX Q364-24 passed through Lyons NY E/B with the CSX 8973 leading HLCX 580 and 591. Q364-24 had
197 loads, 14 emptys, totaling 12,377 tons and 12,382 feet long. Besides being a long, heavy train. CSX 8973 is an x CR, Nee- EL SD45-2. I haven't seen one of these since Nov. 2000 in Cumberland, Maryland. It was quite a surprise, painted in CSX "bright Future" paint, still sporting the EL airhorns on the right side of the cab. This train yards in Selkirk tonight. Hopefully 8973 will be heading back this way in the next day or 2. Maybe, I'll get to recrew and run it. :D

Hey Roadster!
Indeed a rare sighting! I think there are only 2 of these left. I saw the 8954 leading a westbound freight a few weeks back. Very cool!

I believe there are still some leased to CSX through Helm, too.

Try this site.....you can search by make or model or by number, etc.>>>>>>>


[/url]http://www.trainweb.org/csxphotos/html/ ... uting.html

The SD45-2's are indeed a dying breed. Some of them still have the twenty cylinder blocks in them, while most only have the sixteen's that Conrail installed. CSX has one down at Huntington WV at the Backshops used for tracktesting locomotives, it's road number is HLS1 (I believe).

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=56876

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=57397

according to this:

http://www.trainweb.org/csxphotos/html/Active2.html

there are still 5 (or 6 if including 8889) active CSX SD45-2's..
anyone know if they are all EL?
and why does that roster say 8889 is a SD40-2?

8889 (?)
8954
8972
8973
8974
8976

Scot

8889 (as well as 8886, and others...I didn't look through all the photos) are really jsut shells of SD-45-2's. They are apparently SD-40-2's from a mechanical standpoint, now having 16 cylinder prime movers, thus are numbered in the SD-40-2 series (88xx as opposed to 89xx).

Sunday 5/16 I was in Selkirk on Q362-15 with UP 9815 as the leader and observed the CSXT 8974 ex EL\CR SD45-2 in "Dark Future" paint near the east end of the sand towers. Definitely EL loco with the larger fuel tank and charactoristic air horns mounted offset over the engineers side of the cab. I believe the 8974 is being utilized by Selkirk Yard jobs as pull down power. Anyone from Selkirk wanna check that out and maybe get some pics? I believe there are several sd45-2's left on CSX most ex-SBD with standard fuel tanks and center cab mounted horns.

I believe the tanks were a special EL order. They want the larger tank to allow the loco's assigned to highspeed van trains to go from New Jersey to Buffalo without refueling. Prior to The SD45-2's the EL also ordered a bunch of SDP45's with the steam generator removed. The longer framed SDP45 allowed the use of the larger 5000 gal tank, before the -2 series became available. I also believe these ex-EL units still have the 20 cylinder 645's still throbing inside. Can anyone confirm or clarify this?

I saw 8973 and 8976 in Camden a week and a half ago.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/111 ... 2277AgTlnx

with the power shortages, their sticking whatever the have available to get the trains out. Last week I saw q624 (BUSY) with 2 roadslug sets, GP40+GP30 slug/ GP 40+ GP35 slug and an sd40.

CSX #8886 and 8889 are both former EL SD45-2's that have been rebuilt with 16 cylinder prime movers. Both are classed as SD40-2 by CSX.

CSX #8973, 8974, and 8976 are all former EL SD45-2's and still retain the 20 cylinder prime movers.

CSX #8954 is a former SCL SD45-2 and #8972 is a former Clinchfield SD45-2. Both retain 20 cylinder prime movers.

CSX #2422 and 2423 are both former Clinchfield SD45-2's that have been rebuilt with 16 cylinder prime movers and are now classed as
SD40-2's. They are mated to yard slugs and used in hump service at Rice Yard in Waycross,GA. They were originally rebuilt to SD40-2 specs by CSX around 1990 as prototypes for a rebuild program that would have seen all remaining SD45-2's rebuilt with 16 cylinder prime movers and reclassed SD40-2.

CSX HLS1 is a former Clinchfield SD45-2 used for load testing locomotives at the Huntington shops. It is confined to the shop grounds.

With all said and done, CSX has a total of 4 SD45-2 carbodies and 6 real SD45-2's still in service.

Bryan Jones