An EMD SD40A is a six-axle

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conv ...

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 1969 and 1970. 18 examples of this locomotive were built exclusively for the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also co ...

. The SD40A was basically an

SD40 SD40 may refer to: * Canon PowerShot SD40, a digital camera * EMD SD40, a diesel-electric locomotive * South Dakota Highway 40 * SD-40 alcohol, ethanol denatured by adding denatonium benzoate Denatonium, usually available as denatonium benzoate (u ...

built on an SDP45 frame. The longer SDP45 frame allowed for a larger, 5000 gallon fuel tank. This locomotive is powered by a sixteen-

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 provide . Illinois Central Railroad used the SD40A as a long-range

road-switcher A road switcher is a type of railroad locomotive designed to both haul railcars in mainline service and shunt them in railroad yards. Both type and term are North American in origin, although similar types have been used elsewhere. A road ...

, utilizing the larger fuel tank found on the SDP45. The

Soo Line Railroad The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , one of seven U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sa ...

eventually acquired five of these units and as of 2005 they are out of service. Six other units (IC 6011, and 6013-6018) remain in service under Illinois Central, which is now a subsidiary of

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

References

* Sarberenyi, Robert.
EMD SD40, SD40A, and SDP40 Original Owners
'. Retrieved on August 27, 2006 * Del Grosso, Robert C. "Canadian National Railway Historical Review and Motive Power Directory" 2001, Great Northern Pacific Publications. SD40A C-C locomotives Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1969 Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Freight locomotives {{diesel-loco-stub