The EMD GP39-2 is a 4-axle diesel locomotive built by

General Motors Electro-Motive Division Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its su ...

between 1974 and 1984. 239 examples of this locomotive were built for American railroads. Part of the

EMD Dash 2 The EMD Dash 2 is a line of diesel-electric locomotives introduced by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division (EMD) on January 1, 1972. Designations of these models were those of the former models with "-2" added (e.g., the SD40 was replaced b ...

line, the GP39-2 was an upgraded GP39. The power for this locomotive was provided by a turbocharged 12-

cylinder A cylinder (from ) 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 infin ...

EMD 645E3 The EMD 645 is a family of 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-cylinder ve ...

diesel engine, which could produce . Unlike the original GP39, which sold only 23 examples as railroads preferred the reliable un-turbocharged

GP38 The EMD GP38 is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between January 1966 and December 1971. The locomotive's prime mover was an EMD 645 16-cylinder engine that generated . The company built 70 ...

, the GP39-2 was reasonably successful, ascribed to its better fuel economy relative to the

GP38-2 The EMD GP38-2 is an American four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division. Part of the EMD Dash 2 line, the GP38-2 was an upgraded version of the earlier GP38. Power is provided by an EMD 645E 16-cyl ...

which became of more interest in the

1970s energy crisis The 1970s energy crisis occurred when the Western world, particularly the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, faced substantial petroleum shortages as well as elevated prices. The two worst crises of this period wer ...

, and to its better performance at altitude.

Original Owners

The GP39-2 sold to five railroads and two industrial operators:

Rebuilds

Several GP40-2 locomotives were rebuilt by

Morrison–Knudsen Morrison–Knudsen (MK) was an American civil engineering and construction company, with headquarters in Boise, Idaho. MK designed and constructed major infrastructure throughout the world and was one of the consortium of firms that built Hoover ...

with head-end power generators, which meant that 1,000 horsepower of the locomotive would go to the generator instead of being used for tractive effort. Because of this, they were renamed the GP38H-2 class of locomotives.

Preservation

Only one GP39-2 is preserved as of 2019: *

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

4317, former Reading Company 3412, is preserved at the Reading Company Technical and Historical Society in Hamburg Pennsylvania. 4317 is the first GP39-2 in preservation.

References

External links

* Sarberenyi, Robert.
EMD GP39-2 Original Owners
' GP39-2 B-B locomotives Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1974 Standard gauge locomotives of the United States {{diesel-loco-stub