5001-5049 Series

GP45M

The 5000-5049 series represent the numbering block set aside for the GP45M Rebuild Program. Georgia Road inherited a significant number of builder new GP50 units for predecessor CA&S. Unfortunately, these units were early production units beset with a number of design and teething issues that made them less than what EMD touted them to be. CA&S exacerbated the situation by failing to perform proper maintenance over time and after the initial EMD warranty expired saw many of the units suffering major breakdowns and subsequent deadline storage. The former CA&S purchased fifty GP50 units in the 1990s as an attempt to modernize power and stem growing numbers of older out of service power. With only a few years of service prior to the CA&S bankruptcy, these units were still relatively new though many were not in good mechanical order. This was like so many older CA&S units which suffered from years of deferred maintenance as the financial outlook of the CA&S became increasingly bleak. Georgia Road sent the block of units to Stephens Railcar for repairs, but like many other early GP50s, even repaired units continued to suffer slipping, unusual engine wear, and electrical issues.

A portion of the more troublesome units were traded to EMD for various rebuilds, including the TGX Program GP65M units. Others were eventually converted to road slugs but the bulk of the units remained out of service in the Stephens Railcar storage lines. This changed in 2105, when Georgia Road decided to task Stephens Railcar with producing a comparable rebuild from the cores to match the highly successful rebuilds of the ex-IC GP40Rs into GP40M-3 units. This time Stephens Railcar came up with the GP45M-3 design, using GP50 cores in the Stephens Railcar inventory, including the last of the former CA&S units that were traded for GP25M rebuilds.

The specifications of the GP45M included changing out the 645-16 primemover with a 710ECO-12 kit. In addition, dynamics were upgraded or added in many cases as Stephens Railcar pulled cores from its at large deadline, including former MP and CNW units which lacked the option. The radiator was also enlarged, gaining a GP40X style radiator to increase cooling and bring the unit up to Tier I Emissions. The rebuild program produced a total of 45 units before the program ended in 2020.

These units were assigned to general service with a portion shoring up the growing QuickSilver Intermodal Service ” SlingShot” trains that connected smaller spoke terminals to larger hubs. These fit right in with GP60M, GP65M, GP25M models that were reassigned to these trains after six axle units replaced them in the high priority APL Contract trains. As of this writing, these units continue in the service they were intended. Georgia Road considered the GP45M-3 Program a success.

GP45M (GP45M-3)

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