Description
PROTOTYPE SPECIFIC INFORMATION
EMD released a new 645 engine in 1966. The most powerful locomotive using this series of engine was the SD45. The EMD SDP45 was a good passenger locomotive, but to the Santa Fe Railway it did not look the part. EMD therefore designed a lightweight “cowl” body to cover the locomotive, though it did not, as in earlier cab units, provide any structural strength, which remained in the frame. The cowl provided sleeker looks, better aerodynamics at speed, and allowed the crew to enter the engine compartment en route for diagnostics and maintenance. After sponsoring the development of the FP45 passenger locomotive, the Santa Fe requested a similar freight locomotive from Electro-Motive. Where the FP45 was an SDP45 wrapped in a full-width Cowl carbody, the new F45 was essentially an SD45 given the same treatment.
Milwaukee Road’s five FP45s were a mere four years old when Amtrak took over passenger operations in the United States. These five, plus another order of five that was cancelled, were intended to replace Milwaukee’s aging E9 fleet. Crews disliked how the FP45s rode so much that they were demoted to freight service soon after word of Amtrak’s impending formation. The steam generators and water tanks were removed and additional concrete ballast was added to improve pulling power and ride quality. The first application of Milwaukee’s orange and black freight livery didn’t adhere well and before long the underlying Armour Yellow began showing so the locomotives were painted once more, receiving variations of the then current “Billboard” livery before being retired to the deadline by 1984.
FP45 SERIES LOCOMOTIVE FEATURES:
- See-through cab windows
- • Split water and fuel tank
- Snow plow or plate welded pilot
- • Flush mounted port hole window glass
- • Flexicoil-C sideframes with high brake cylinders
- • Body-mounted McHenry® operating scale knuckle couplers
- • Fine-scale Celcon handrails for scale appearance
- 5-pole skew wound motor, precision machined flywheels, and multi-link drivetrain
- • All-wheel drive with precision gears for smooth & quiet operation
- • All-wheel electrical pickup provides reliable current flow
- • Wheels with RP25 contours operate on all popular brands of track
- • Bidirectional constant LED lighting so headlight brightness remains constant
- • Heavy die-cast frame for greater traction and more pulling power
- • Scaled from prototype resources including drawings, field measurements, photographs, and more
- • Accurately-painted and –printed paint schemes
- • Fully-assembled and ready-to-run
- • Jewel case blister packaging securely holds for the model
- • Minimum radius: 9 ¾”
MILW FEATURES:
- • MILW-style body w/o dynamic brakes
SOUND-EQUIPPED MODELS ALSO FEATURE
- Onboard DCC decoder with SoundTraxx Tsunami2 sound
- Sound units operate in both DC and DCC
- Full DCC functions available when operated in DCC mode
- Engine, horn, and bell sounds work in DC
- All functions NMRA compatible in DCC mode
- Precision slow speed control
- Program a multiple unit (MU) lashup with lead unit only horn, bell, and lights
- Many functions can be altered via Configuration Value (CV) changes
- CV chart included in the box
