The EMD GP49 is a 4-axle diesel

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. Power was provided by an

EMD 645F3B The EMD 645 is a family of two-stroke 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-cyl ...

12-

cylinder A cylinder () 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 infinite ...

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 were relatively popular with a total of 278 GP50s and 427 SD50s built. The SD49 was advertised but never built and a total of nine GP49s were built.

Alaska Railroad The Alaska Railroad is a Class II railroad that operates freight and passenger trains in the state of Alaska. The railroad's mainline runs between Seward, Alaska, Seward on the southern coast and Fairbanks, Alaska, Fairbanks, near the center of ...

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 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, whereas the GP50 has ten.

Use

Tri-Rail EMD GP49 engine 813 in Hialeah Railyard

In December 2006, the

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) were 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 Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. The units 2805 and 2808 are now part of the fleet of one of the biggest Chilean freight operators, Ferronor 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 axle load. Columbia Rail has four: Columbia-Walla Walla Railway operates four GP49s (2802, 2806, 2807, 2809) on the former Blue Mountain Railroad lines in and around Walla Walla.

Tri-Rail Tri-Rail is a commuter rail service 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 County, Palm Beach, Broward Count ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

has since bought

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

's six GP49 variants (ex-GP39X units) for use on commuter trains in Florida. The locomotives have since been rebuilt with

head end power In rail transport, head-end power (HEP), also known as electric train supply (ETS), is the electrical power distribution system on a passenger train. The power source, usually a locomotive (or a generator car) at the front or 'head' of a train, ...

, low hood also have been de-rated to from .Destination: Freedom. '. July 21, 2003, retrieved September 8, 2006. They were also given the designation GP49H-3. As of July 2023, three remain in service and are scheduled to be retired in 2025.

References

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

Performance

Use

References

Further reading

External links