DILWORTH, Minn. – Great Northern Railway SD45 No. 400, the “Hustle Muscle” diesel, will appear at the annual convention of the Great Northern Railway Historical Society this month. The locomotive, currently at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minn., will be moved to Dilworth by BNSF for display during the convention, which is being held in neighboring Fargo, N.D. The convention will be held July 20-24.
Built in May 1966, No. 400 was the first production SD45 built by Electro-Motive Division; it received the Hustle Muscle moniker by GN when the company purchased the unit. It continued to carry the name after it became Burlington Northern No. 6430 following the 1970 BN merger. In 1986 it was retired and donated in operating condition to the Society. In 1989, it was repainted to its original GN paint scheme by BN at Grand Forks, N.D. It was repainted again by the Wisconsin & Southern at Horicon, Wis., in 2006.
The unit has made several appearances at the historical society’s annual convention held at various cities, but this will be the first since No. 400 received a new prime mover earlier this year. In spring 2017, while being operated on the test rack at BNSF Railway’s Northtown Yard in Minneapolis, No. 400’s prime mover failed. BNSF located a 20-cylinder prime mover from ex-Santa Fe SD45-2 No. 6470, had it rebuilt at the railroad’s Topeka (Kan.) Shops, and shipped it to Northtown, where this winter the damaged prime mover was pulled out and the rebuilt engine installed, all at no cost to the society.
This spring the society reached an agreement with the Lake Superior Railroad Museum to operate and display the locomotive. At the end of the convention BNSF will move the locomotive back to Duluth, where it occasionally operates on the Museum’s North Shore Scenic Railroad between Duluth and Two Harbors.
If the locomotive that Charles Landey spotted was numbered in the NS 4700 series, it is a former GP50 rebuilt to a GP33ECO. These rebuilds were funded in part by the States of Illinois and Georgia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and are assigned to terminal areas based on the funding. The flared radiators are part of the rebuilding process.
Thanks Paul.
In Chicago yesterday, I saw two locomotives that appeared to be modified SD45’s. Both Norfolk Southern units in the State of Illinois “green” color scheme. One was running on CN parallel to Metra Electric. I saw the other from the Hiawatha.
I was vaguely aware of Illinois’ “green” locomotive program. But SD45’s, a design from decades ago? We must think of a “green” locomotive being a more contemporary design. The one that I actually heard, as well as saw, sounded like an EMD from that era. So it must not have been all that modified.
Someone please enlighten me.
Agreed, Jim; thank you BNSF for your generous help!
Cheers for the generosity of BNSF!