I believe it is/was a test bed for rebuilt or new prime movers (or maybe even testing old ones out of wrecks or whatever). The diesel engine would be dropped into the loco and hooked up to the various sytems of the loco, like cooling and oil lines, and of course, the main generator (for load testing it)
Because the SD45 was a 20 cylinder loco, there is plenty of working room in there if they were to test a V16 which is in most locos, but they could still test a V20 if they were rebuilding that engine type as well.
the various accessory systems of the loco are pretty much the same for a V16 or V20, so its not a big deal to drop in a V16, for testing at least.
It has been repainted into NS 1000 and looks MUCH better now
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=952576
