The EMD DDM45 is a

meter-gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

built by EMD. The DD in the name means that it has eight axles in two trucks, giving it a AAR wheel arrangement#D-D

wheel arrangement In rail transport, a wheel arrangement or wheel configuration is a system of classifying the way in which wheels are distributed under a locomotive. Several notations exist to describe the wheel assemblies of a locomotive by type, position, and c ...

, while the M stands for the meter-gauge track it was to operate on, and the 45 represents the EMD SD45 that the engine was derived from. They were built for service on the

Estrada de Ferro Vitória a Minas The Rede Ferroviária Federal, Sociedade Anônima (RFFSA, pronounced as ''Refesa'') () was the State-owned national railway company of Brazil created from ''Brazilian Federal Law #3.115'' on March 16, 1957, after several railroads were nationali ...

(EFVM) in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. In the early 1970s, the EFVM needed not only to expand its locomotive roster, but to use the most powerful single-engined locomotives available, and the

SD45 The SD45 is a six-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between 1965 and 1971. It has an EMD 645E3 twenty- cylinder engine generating on the same frame as the SD38, SD39, SD40, and SDP40. As of 2022, ...

represented the highest-rated model that EMD had to offer at the time. However, a large locomotive like an SD45 with its three-axle trucks was not readily adaptable to the EFVM's meter gauge trackage. The smaller

traction motor A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric or hydrogen vehicles, elevators or electric multiple unit. Traction motors are used in electrically powered rail vehicles ( electric multip ...

s of the meter gauge locomotive were unable to handle the full current capacity from the prime mover. EMD proposed using a meter-gauge version of the

Flexicoil Flexicoil suspension is a type of secondary suspension for railway vehicles, typically having steel coil springs between the bogie trucks and chassis/frame of a passenger coach, goods freight wagon, or locomotive. Suspension systems using stee ...

-D four-axle

bogie A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...

s, similar to those found under the domestic DD35, DD35A and

DDA40X The EMD DDA40X is a 6,600 hp (4,943 kW) D-D locomotive, built by EMD from 1969 to 1971 exclusively for the Union Pacific Railroad. It is the most powerful diesel-electric locomotive model ever built on a single frame, having two 16- ...

locomotive models. The two additional traction motors of this design allowed full power to be used. Roster of DDM45s:

External links

DDM45 D-D locomotives Metre gauge diesel locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1970 Diesel-electric locomotives of Brazil {{Diesel-loco-stub

See also

External links