EMD GP49
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An EMD GP49 is a 4-axle diesel
locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), 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 (rail), motor ...
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 sub ...
. Power was provided by an
EMD 645F3B 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 ...
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 ...
engine which generated . The GP49 was marketed as one of four models in the 50 series introduced in 1979. The 50 series includes GP/SD49 and GP/SD50. Both the GP and SD50 was relatively popular with a total of 278 GP50s and 427 SD50s built. The SD49 was advertised but never built and a total of 9 GP49s were built.
Alaska Railroad Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
was the sole customer that ordered the GP49. In two orders, the company first bought locomotives 2801-2804 in September 1983, locomotives 2805-2809 were subsequently built in May 1985. Six GP39Xs were built in November 1980 for the Southern Railway and upgraded to GP49s shortly thereafter.


Performance

While possessing a fairly high power rating (total of ), the traction horsepower was rated at while was used to run the onboard appliances. The GP49 is known for its slow acceleration, this was due to the radar unit that is mounted under the front pilot to monitor the actual ground speed when the engine is moving to prevent wheel slip. This system is known as EMD's
Super Series The Super Series were exhibition games between Soviet teams and NHL teams that took place on the NHL opponents' home ice in North America from 1976 to 1991. The Soviet teams were usually club teams from the Soviet hockey league. The exception w ...
wheel slip control that was introduced on the GP40X. It tells the engine's computer to slow the speed of the motors to prevent wheel slip. The GP49 is equipped with a 12-645F3B engine with an AR15 alternator rated at 4680 amperes and has four D87 traction motors. Externally the GP49 looks like a GP50 but has two 48" fans above the radiator instead of three as on the GP50, and the engine-room has eight access doors on each side under the Dynamic Brake blister for engine and turbocharger maintenance, while the GP50 has ten.


Use

In December 2006, the
Alaska Railroad Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
auctioned five units (numbers 2801, 2803, 2804, 2806, and 2807) plus parts; Helm Leasing was the winning bidder with a bid of $1.3 million. The Alaska Railroad's four remaining units (2802, 2805, 2808, and 2809) are still in service as of March, 2007. As of July 2014, units 2803, 2806, and 2807 had been acquired by Frontier Rail and assigned to the new Cincinnati East Terminal Railway in Southwestern Ohio. The units 2805 and 2808 are now part of the fleet of one of the biggest Chilean freight operators, Ferronor S.A (Empresa de Transporte Ferroviario S.A) and were modified into 6-axle units. They are based out of the Llanos de Soto Workshops of Ferronor S.A, where they operate in Ferronor Vallenar iron ore trains from Los Colorados Mine to the Guacolda Port in Huasco, Chile. Both work with slugs rebuilt from General Electric U9C engines. 2801 and 2802 are now part of the locomotive fleet of TRANSAP, a Chilean railway. They were refitted with A1A bogies, to reduce weight. Columbia Rail has four: Columbia-Walla Walla Railway operates three GP49s (2806,2807,2809) on the former Blue Mountain Railroad lines in and around Walla Walla,WA as of January 2021 and Rainier Rail has one (2802) on ex-MILW lines in Western Washington.
Tri-Rail Tri-Rail is a commuter rail line linking Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in Florida, United States. The ''Tri'' prefix in the name refers to the three counties served by the railroad: Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade. Tri-Rail i ...
in Florida has since bought Norfolk Southern's six GP49 variants (ex-GP39X units) for use on commuter trains in Florida. The locomotives have since been rebuilt with HEP, and have been de-rated to from .Destination: Freedom.
Alaska Railroad buys eight locomotives
'. July 21, 2003, retrieved September 8, 2006.
They were also given the designation GP49H-3. As of March 2022, four remain in service.


References

* Combs, John.

' and

', John's Alaska Railroad Web Page. September 24, 1998, retrieved September 8, 2006. * Foster, Gerald. (1996). ''A Field Guide to Trains.'' Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, NY. * * Sanders, Dale (1998) "EMD GP49; Diesel Data Series-Number 8" Hundman Publishing Company, Mukilteo, WA


External links

* http://www.trainweb.org/emdloco/gp40-2.htm * http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/emd/gp402/gp402proto.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20070222021331/http://trainiax.net/mescalelocophase.htm * Sarberenyi, Robert.

' {{EMD GPs GP49 B-B locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Metre gauge diesel locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1979 Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States