From BLI, we have a Burlington Northern EMD SD45 up for review today...
So let's get started!
EMD SD45 History: Powered by an EMD 20-645E3 twenty-cylinder, 3,600 hp prime mover, which put power through an AR10B generator to two 6-axle trucks, with all axles powered. A total of 1,260 were built for many railroads, from December 1965 to December 1971. They were highly lauded by EMD, but they had troubles early on, mainly crankshaft failures due to engine block flex, though this was eventually rectified by EMD. Though powerful, the 20 cylinder engine was notorious for guzzling fuel, and railroads soon decided that the slightly less powerful, but more reliable and fuel efficient SD40 was the better option. Most large railroads that originally purchased the SD45 did not keep them for very long, either rebuilding them with different engines, selling them outright, or scrapping them. Several still exist, both in service and preserved, but most of the in service units were rebuilt with the EMD 16-645E3 prime mover, making them an SD40-2 mechanically.
BN 6532 History: Built by EMD in August of 1971 and painted BN's Cascade Green scheme, it would last on the BN until the late 80's, at which point Wisconsin Central purchased it and painted it into their maroon and gold scheme, but kept the number, but with new reporting marks - WC. It would be renumbered WC 6519, then WC 7519. Wisconsin Central rostered many 45 series (SD45 and F45) locos up until WC was purchased by Canadian National in 2001. By 2001, an SD45 in service was a novelty, mostly reseverved for shortlines and regionals such as WC - but Class 1 lines like CN had no interest in such a beast, so our featured loco would trundle on a few years for CN, but retaining its final WC paint and number, until May of 2007, when it was sold off for scrap.
Info on the box~
Note the roof strobe: you can control it with your DCC controller. It looks great.
Ratings~
Good - Almost everything was top-notch here, as I've come to expect from BLI. The paint and lettering were perfect, the details all looked great, very sturdy all around, All the lights and DCC sounds/functions work, and it runs and operates very nicely. Also, the packaging was good, as it had suffered no damage. Weight was 15.1 ounces - a solid weight.
Bad - The lights were a little on the cool white side, and the class lights seemed a bit too bright. Also, an oddity I've noticed on previous BLI diesels is that the engine sounds don't match what setting the controller is set to: you'll go up several speed steps on the controller and the loco will move and gain speed, but it takes several speed steps for the engine to throttle up. These are extremely minor issues, though.
Verdict - It's great, and I certainly recommend it, and BLI as a whole!
That's it for today - thanks for looking!