The EMD SD18 is a 6-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 April 1960 and March 1963. Power was provided by an

EMD 567D1 The EMD 567 is a line of large medium-speed diesel engines built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division. This engine, which succeeded Winton's 201A, was used in EMD's locomotives from 1938 until its replacement in 1966 by the EMD 645. It ...

16-

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 . 54 examples of this locomotive model were built for American railroads, and 60 for export, including fifteen for Korail (order numbers 700735–700749, serial numbers 28373–28387).

Design and Production

The SD18 was the third model in EMD's SD (special duty) line of locomotives. It was designed as a modified

GP18 The EMD GP18 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division between December 1959 and November 1963. Power was provided by an EMD 567D1 16-cylinder engine which generated . The GP18 replaced the GP9 in E ...

which had six axles instead of four. The additional axles allowed for more tractive effort and a more even distribution of weight compared to the GP18.

Original Owners

Preservation

At least four SD18s have been preserved. Chop-nosed Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 193 is now an operating member of the

Lake Superior Railroad Museum The Lake Superior Railroad Museum is a railroad museum in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. Opened in 1973, the museum focuses on railroading in the Lake Superior region. It is housed in the restored Duluth Union Depot complex. The museum als ...

collection. They also previously had DM&IR 316 in their collection, which is an "SDM"; an EMD SD18 given

EMD 645 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 versio ...

power assemblies by the Missabe, though still labeled as an SD18. In 2019 #316 was traded for Northern Pacific #245 and left the museum for the Dakota Quality Grain Corporation in Parshall, N.D. As of March 2022 grain terminal operator AgRail LLC of Bloomington, Illinois has acquired Western Rail Inc. SD18M No. 1229 through a lease-to-purchase agreement. The unit began service with Minnesota's Reserve Mining in May 1961 and was last used by the Western Milling plant in Goshen, CA. It was rewired in the 1980s.

References

External links

* {{Korail rolling stock SD18 C-C locomotives Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1960 Freight locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Standard gauge locomotives of South Korea Diesel-electric locomotives of South Korea