tunnel motors

How can you tell if an engine is equiped with tunnel motors, and could you show me pictures of what the difference is? Thanks

"Tunnel motor" referrs to the locomotive itself - not the traction motors.

I don't know if GE ever built locomotives specially equipped for tunnel/snowshed duty. But EMD did a series of jobs for SP and DRGW...instead of having the radiator air intake higher up on the rear panels, the cooling grates were LOW on the rear; the radiators mounted horizontally halfway up in the compartment.

Instead of sucking hot exhaust air through the high-up air grates as happened with conventional EMDs, these units would take cooler, cleaner air lower down, and thus not overheat in tunnels.

Best tipoff at a distance, is that the tunnel motors didn't have the EMD characteristic Vee-formation on the rear of the carbody. Instead, it had a flat rear surface, reminiscent of old GEs.

Don't recall the specific models made into tunnel motors....I believe they were SD-45Ts.

I may be wrong, but I think SD40-T's were also built in addition to the 45's.

Here's some good info on the Tunnel Motor locos!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_SD45T-2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_SD40T-2

Charlie you are on target. There were 559 tunnel motor locomotives built by GM-EMD between 1972 and 1980. These locomotives originally went to three railroads: The Southern Pacific 163 SD45T-2 and 229 SD40T-2, The Cotton Belt 84 SD45T-2 and 10 SD40T-2, and The Denver & Rio Grande Western 73 SD40T-2. The Wikipedia is a good place to find some general information on the subject.