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A few people were talking in the CSX heads up thread about CSX 8889, I’ve heard of this engine before, something like it was a SD45 that was down rated to SD40-2 specs but kept the SD45 carbody, but what’s the history behind this locomotive?

David Collins wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 05, 2022 4:15 pm

A few people were talking in the CSX heads up thread about CSX 8889, I’ve heard of this engine before, something like it was a SD45 that was down rated to SD40-2 specs but kept the SD45 carbody, but what’s the history behind this locomotive?

I found on rrpicturearcives.net it was a SD45-2 built in November 1972 for the Erie Lackawanna as engine #3678.

In 1976, Conrail inherited thirteen 3,600hp SD45-2's from the Erie Lackawanna and the EL #3678 became the CR #6663 & at some point it was rebuilt with a 16-cylinder 3,000 hp engine and reclassed as an SD40-2.

Here's a link about Conrail inheriting SD45-2 engines from the Erie Lackawanna:

http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/emd/sd45 ... proto.html

Way to go Tom in searching this out. What a thorough and accurate history of CSX 8889. Last seen by me on 8-19-08 and was retired by CSX January 2014

A second Ex EL SD45-2 turned SD40-2 also made it onto CSXT. Renumbered to 8886. As of 2020, it was still active and assigned to CR territory outside of Philadelphia. In addition to their long bodies, these former 45-2s were also recognizable by their high capacity fuel tanks and, at one point, horn sets placed right over the engineers cab window. 8886 may still be going strong, I’m not sure.

GP30M4216 wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 09, 2022 6:57 pm

A second Ex EL SD45-2 turned SD40-2 also made it onto CSXT. Renumbered to 8886. As of 2020, it was still active and assigned to CR territory outside of Philadelphia. In addition to their long bodies, these former 45-2s were also recognizable by their high capacity fuel tanks and, at one point, horn sets placed right over the engineers cab window. 8886 may still be going strong, I’m not sure.

Now that I think about it, NS operates a couple of these units too, including #1700, which is basically another EL heritage unit