My daughter (she's 5) is learning to tell locomotives apart. Totally of her own doing. She knows daddy's favorite is the SD45. She can spot Dash 9's and SD70's and SD60's. For a while, the local switcher that we would see switching the neighboring paper plant was NS 4623, a GP59. She started getting a bit mixed up (I think) and keeps trying to find an SD49.
This is where you come in. I can't find much on the development of the GP49 or GP59. I remember reading somewhere that EMD carried an SD59 in their catalog, but no one bought it.
I know the GP49 is a 12-cylinder 645E3A engine rated at 2800 HP. I think it was created out of the GP39X program.
The GP59 is rated at 3000 HP with a 12-710G3A inside built between 1985 and 1989. NS owns all 36 production models, but not the 3 demonstrators. That's about all I can find.
So.....what would an SD49 look like? Externally, would it resemble an SD50 in the same way that a GP59 resembles a GP60? Would it look like an SD40-2 with no discernable external differences? (That would be kind of boring and anti-climatic...) IIRC, a GP49 looks like a GP50 except that it is missing the middle radiator fan. Perhaps the SD49 would follow suit?
TIA,
Adam
P.S. FTR, I was hoping for something like a modified SD40X (either version, the SD40-prototype or the SD50 prototype) or SD50S (N&W test bed).
The only GP49's ever built all wound up on the Alaska RR. All of the GP59's wound up on NS as the three demos were later purchased by NS. NS also owned the GP39X test beds, which have recently been sold to Tri-Rail and are being rebuilt for suburban service out of Miami.
Your analogy on appearances is pretty sound, I would add that an SD49/59 would probably have large end porches similar to an SD38 from using a common frame despite the smaller engine.
I was thinking about the larger porches, too.
I remember that NS/Southern bought some GP49's, too. They have highnoses and are numbered in the 4600-series.
Another thought that occurred to me is that the SD49 could have come from SD45's, since this started with my daughter confusing the SD45. Maybe an SD45-3 = SD49?
Just to add to the topic, what WOULD the SD59 have looked like, had anyone ordered it?
For an export version of the SD59, check this link: http://locopage.railpage.org.au/sra/82.html
The FreightCorp/Pacific National 82 class has a V12 710G3A engine on C-C trucks.
Here's an export SD49: http://locopage.railpage.org.au/qr/15502400.html
The Queensland Rail 1550/2300/2400 class has a V12 645 engine on C-C trucks
They have a distinctly different appearance than anything we have in North America but the mechanicals and electricals aren't that different.
Yes, those end cabs look like something from a German truck. Or a toaster! LOL!
I know quite a few folks in the Auran Trainz forums that get all excited at those 1550-class units. They barely look like EMD's, mostly the trucks (what they would call "bogies", which to me are enemy fighters on radar!).]