MILWAUKEE ROAD LASHUP OF SDL-39 UNITS SIT OUTSIDE OF PIGS EYE SHOP - ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA - SEPTEMBER 12, 1984
Labor Day 2024 finds us in St.Paul looking at a uniquely Milwaukee Road workhorse, the SDL-39 diesel. It was kind of an experiment in offering a lightweight 6-axle unit for the time, and was basically a GP-39 on six axle trucks. I thought these were some very cool looking units, and we see one third of the current 1984 fleet sitting here in a lashup. And looking pretty nice.
Milwaukee was the only purchaser of these machines, buying 10 of them between 1969 and 1972. One of them was wrecked in 1983, but the remaining 9 units survived being retired by the Soo Line to go on to being purchased by the Wisconsin Central, who put them back to work. After the CN took over the WC, they leased them to the "Ilinois Central" for a short time before selling them to a lease company. But even though there were only 9 of these units left, they proved to be real survivors, ending up sold to the FEPASA Railway in Chile, where they are still in service wearing a spiffy two tone blue plus gray paint scheme for the Fepasa Railway.
MILWAUKEE ROAD LASHUP OF SDL-39 UNITS SIT OUTSIDE OF PIGS EYE SHOP - ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA - SEPTEMBER 12, 1984
Labor Day 2024 finds us in St.Paul looking at a uniquely Milwaukee Road workhorse, the SDL-39 diesel. It was kind of an experiment in offering a lightweight 6-axle unit for the time, and was basically a GP-39 on six axle trucks. I thought these were some very cool looking units, and we see one third of the current 1984 fleet sitting here in a lashup. And looking pretty nice.
Milwaukee was the only purchaser of these machines, buying 10 of them between 1969 and 1972. One of them was wrecked in 1983, but the remaining 9 units survived being retired by the Soo Line to go on to being purchased by the Wisconsin Central, who put them back to work. After the CN took over the WC, they leased them to the "Ilinois Central" for a short time before selling them to a lease company. But even though there were only 9 of these units left, they proved to be real survivors, ending up sold to the FEPASA Railway in Chile, where they are still in service wearing a spiffy two tone blue plus gray paint scheme for the Fepasa Railway.