SP45 is the name for a Polish

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

. It was built for the purpose of passenger traffic. No operating examples of this loco remain. All have been phased out or rebuilt into SU45.

History

In the early 1960s in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

an urgent need became apparent to introduce locomotives capable of servicing passenger traffic on main and secondary rail routes. The number of

steam locomotives A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

was shrinking and electrification was far too slow to introduce electric locos on a large scale.

Prototypes

In the second half of the 1960s a few models of a new locomotive, with Co-Co bogies and electric transmission, were built at the Hipolit Cegielski Metal Works in

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

. In general, all prototypes differed by

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

alternator An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.Gor ...

combination. The final decision was to use a

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiar ...

-licensed engine and an Alsthom-licensed alternator.

Introduction

The first locos were assigned to the

railway district, and on successfully passing the necessary tests, they entered service in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

. Between 1970 and 1976, a total number of 265 locomotives were produced. This type served on all main routes in

Production

Present days

All locomotives of this type were rebuilt into SU45 (with a new heating system) or phased out.

Locomotive assignment

Nicknames

These locomotives used to be called the following names: *Fiat - because of diesel engine licensed by

*Suka (eng. ''bitch'') - from the two first letters of the code name (SUka - after conversion to SU45 class)

External links

Modern Locos GalleryRail ServiceMikolejeChabówka Rail Museum
Diesel-electric locomotives of Poland Co′Co′ locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1970 Standard gauge locomotives of Poland {{poland-rail-transport-stub