The EMD GP38 is a four-axle

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between January 1966 and December 1971. The locomotive's

prime mover Prime mover may refer to: Philosophy *Unmoved mover, a concept in Aristotle's writings Engineering * Prime mover (engine or motor), a machine that converts various other forms of energy (chemical, electrical, fluid pressure/flow, etc.) into ener ...

was an

EMD 645 The EMD 645 is a family of two-stroke diesel engines that was designed and manufactured by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors. While the 645 series was intended primarily for locomotive, marine and stationary engine use, one 16-cy ...

16-

cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...

engine that generated . The company built 706 GP38s for North American railroads. In 1972, EMD began making an updated model, the GP38-2, as part of its Dash-2 line.

Original orders

Rebuilds

A number of GP38s have been rebuilt into the equivalent of a GP38-2. Conversely, a number of higher horsepower ''40 Series'' locomotives have been rebuilt into the equivalent of a GP38-2 (GP38AC), by the removal of the

turbocharger In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (also known as a turbo or a turbosupercharger) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake air, forcing more air into th ...

and the substitution of twin

Roots blower The Roots blower is a positive displacement lobe pump which operates by pumping a fluid with a pair of meshing lobes resembling a set of stretched gears. Fluid is trapped in pockets surrounding the lobes and carried from the intake side to th ...

s. In 2007,

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

rebuilt #2911 which is an ex Penn Central GP38 into an experimental zero-emissions Battery-Electric locomotive known as the Altoona Works BP4. The new locomotive was renumbered as NS #999. It has since been sold to Rail Propulsions Systems, where it was upgraded for eventual use in the Los Angeles Basin region.

Preservation

* Conway Scenic Railroad 252, built as Maine Central (MEC) 252, is preserved and operates on excursions on the former MEC Notch Route. *Conway Scenic Railroad 255, built as Maine Central 255, was acquired in October 2021 and serves alongside 252. *

Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Railway The Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Railroad was created through a reorganization of the Chattanooga Southern Railway in 1911. A few years later, in 1922, the line's name was changed to the Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Railway and was also ...

80, is preserved in operational condition at the

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum is a railroad museum and heritage railroad in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum was founded as a chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in 1960 by Paul H. Merriman a ...

. *

West Chester Railroad The West Chester Railroad is a privately owned and operated Heritage railway, tourist railroad that runs between Market Street in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Chester County, and the village of Glen Mills, Pennsy ...

7706, built as

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

7706, is preserved and operates on tourist trains on the former PRR line. *

Chessie System Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated u ...

3802, built as Baltimore & Ohio 3802, is preserved and operates at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. *

Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines The Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines was a railroad that operated in South Jersey in the 20th century. It was created in 1933 as a joint consolidation venture between two competing railroads in the region: the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Rea ...

2000, is preserved on the

Cape May Seashore Lines Cape May Seashore Lines is a short line railroad in southern New Jersey that operates both freight trains and excursion trains. It offers two excursion services: a round trip between Richland and Tuckahoe along the Beesley's Point Secondary ...

in Tuckahoe, New Jersey.

References

* * * Sarberenyi, Robert.
EMD GP38 and GP38AC Original Owners
'

External links

{{Amtrak rolling stock GP38 GP38 B-B locomotives Diesel–electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1966 Freight locomotives Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States Standard-gauge locomotives of Canada Standard-gauge locomotives of Mexico Diesel–electric locomotives of Canada Diesel–electric locomotives of Mexico Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway locomotives Baltimore and Ohio locomotives Chesapeake and Ohio locomotives Maine Central Railroad locomotives Diesel locomotives of Southern Railway (U.S.)

Original orders

Rebuilds

Preservation

See also

References

External links