The EMD SDL39 is a model of 6-axle

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the power source 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 ...

built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between March 1969 and November 1972. Power was provided by the

EMD 645E3 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-cyli ...

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 as used in the EMD GP39 which generated 2,300 horsepower (1.7 MW). The unit was built on a short frame with C-C export trucks, barely tipping the scales at and managing a light-footed axle-loading of just per axle. All 10 examples of this locomotive model were built for

Milwaukee Road The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), better known as the Milwaukee Road , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States, Midwest and Pacific Northwest, Northwest of the United States from 1847 ...

, who wanted a lightweight

road-switcher A road switcher locomotive 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 elsewher ...

to replace their fleet of ALCO RSC-2s. These Milwaukee Road units were numbered 581–590. The 581 was wrecked at Sacred Heart, MN in 1983, and scrapped the following year. The remaining nine units were transferred to the

Soo Line Railroad The Soo Line Railroad is one of the primary United States railroad subsidiaries for the CPKC Railway , one of six U.S. Class I railroads, controlled through the Soo Line Corporation. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Saul ...

when it acquired the Milwaukee Road. All were subsequently included in the sale of the Soo's Lakes States Division (most of its network in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, plus some lines in adjoining Illinois and Minnesota) to the new Wisconsin Central Limited. After the Wisconsin Central was purchased by, and merged into the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

, the nine units were returned to the lessor, and were sold to FEPASA, Chilean Freight Operation Concession.

Citations

References

External links

* Sarberenyi, Robert.
EMD SD39 and SDL39 Original Owners
'. SD39L C-C locomotives Milwaukee Road locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1969 Diesel–electric locomotives of the United States Freight locomotives Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States 5 ft 6 in gauge locomotives Soo Line locomotives {{diesel-loco-stub