The model railroad industry has featured fantasy-painted locomotives for years. These are locomotive models painted for railroads that never actually owned them. Think Canadian National GP60Ms, Burlington Northern ES44ACs or Monon SD70ACes — designs the railroad either never purchased (Canadiana National), or for which the railroad wasn’t in existence at the time the locomotives were sold (Burlington Northern and Monon). Some railroad heritage programs around North America have done well adapting former railroad paint schemes to modern equipment, as with Norfolk Southern’s heritage fleet, giving us a glimpse of what could have been if these railroads lasted into the present.
Let’s take a look at a handful of locomotive models that were actually considered by railroads, but ultimately never purchased. Our look back will cover EMD products from roughly the end of the 40-series line to the 7- series models. These locomotive models can range from designs never built to models offered to a railroad but never purchased.
SW1500
Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio
GP38-2
Erie Lackawanna
Detroit, Toledo & Ironton
GP40-2
Rock Island
GP50
Louisville & Nashville (Family Lines)
Kansas City Southern
GP50T (never built)
Denver & Rio Grande Western
SD38-2
Milwaukee Road
SD40-2
Utah Railway
SD40B-2 (cabless, never built)
Union Pacific
SD40X
Burlington Northern
SD50
Illinois Central
SD60M
CSX
SD70MAC
Ferromex
SD80MAC
Chicago & North Western
The Milwaukee ordered those additional FP45’s and more SD45’s but the orders were cancelled because of the 1969 recession, not Amtrak. My father, who worked for the Milwaukee in their Chicago offices, told me those SD38-2’s were to be painted in Union Pacific colors. Were to be 40 of them. They ended up buying SD40-2’s.
In the model world, the former Con-Cor and the current Broadway Limited International have had some interesting “fantasies”!
Both Union Pacific and Illinois Central considered ordering FP45s, but Amtrak was launched before any more were built.
Apparently, the Illinois Central actually placed an order for 10 FP45s, and the Milwaukee Road ordered 5 more in addition to their 5 units already delivered, before the launch of Amtrak led to cancellation of both orders.
RF&P was looking at GP59s as replacement power for their aging GP35s but then the CSX takeover occurred squelching that. I wonder if they tested any of NSs?
Also consider models EMD either catalogued and never sold, or were not built because the demonstrators didn’t garner any interest, such as the SD30, SD39-2, and SD55 (what the SD45X would have become).