GREAT NORTHERN EMD SD45 400 HUSTLE MUSCLE

Great Northern HUSTLE MUSCLE SD45 400 is owned by the Great Northern Railway Historical Society and is on indefinite custodial loan to the Minnesota Transportation Museum. GN 400 was stored at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, MN until mid-December 2000 when GN 400 made the trip from Duluth to St. Paul. GN 400 is kept at MTM's Jackson St. Roundhouse located in St. Paul, MN, and is in operating condition. Some of the following information was provided by the GNRHS. See Sources below for additional information.

GN 400 was the first 3600 horsepower turbo-charged 20 cylinder 645E3 production model SD45 diesel electric locomotive manufactured by General Motors Corporation (EMD).

GN 400 was the first of eight SD45s (GN 400-407 all delivered in the GN Omaha orange and Pullman green simpified scheme) in between May and June 1966 to the Great Northern at its Dale Street Shop in St. Paul, MN. GN 400 was christened HUSTLE MUSCLE by the Great Northern Railway. In 1970, this locomotive was renumbered Burlington Northern 6430 (Cicero, IL June 1972 - Ralph Back collection) but still in the original GN green/orange scheme. The GN logo was removed from the cab sides and small white BN sub-lettering was added below the white 6430 road number on both sides of the long hood. In September, 1973 BN 6430 underwent Class One repairs at Livingston, Montana and was repainted in the BN Cascade green (Portland, OR September 1, 1980 - Ken Ardinger Photo; Ed Fulcomer collection) scheme. At the request of numerous railfans and employees, BN 6430 retained its HUSTLE MUSCLE nickname.

In 1986, BN 6430 was retired and donated to the Great Northern Railway Historical Society. In 1989, BN 6430 was repainted to its original GN 400 paint scheme at Grand Forks, ND. In November 2006 GN 400 (Horicon, WI November 2006) received a new coat of paint a second time at the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad's paint shop in Horicon, WI. This time, the HUSTLE MUSCLE lettering was applied in the correct postion centered in the orange area above the road number and GREAT NORTHERN lettering on each side of the long hood. On the first restoration painting the HUSTLE MUSCLE lettering was incorrectly centered beneath the dynamic-brake housing. When BN 6430 was repainted in the Cascade green scheme, the HUSTLE MUSCLE lettering was centered beneath the dynamic-brake housing.

A number of modifications were made to GN 400s original appearance (Dale St. shops St. Paul, MN September 1967 - GNRHS collection). These modifications included the addition of ditch-lights below the front walkway, coupler lift-bars with loop on both ends of the locomotive, additional MU-receptacle on the front and rear walkways, winterization hatch and the three rear hood radiator grilles are painted orange. GN SD45 400 was delivered with trucks with two brake cylinders mounted "low and inside" hanging between the axles on each side of the truck. Southern Pacific received SD45s in August-September 1966 and their experience revealed brake performance problems with the original delivered HD Flexicoil trucks which GN 400-407 also had. EMD's response was the addition of supplemental brake cylinders. Sometime after 1972 GN 400 received the modification of a supplemental brake cylinder mounted "high and outside" on the truck frame. This modification was made to each truck with the supplemental brake cylinder mounted on the front truck on the conductor's side and the rear truck on the engineer's side - right front and left rear. The photos below labeled Before Repaint (front truck conductor's side) and Rear View (rear truck engineer's side) clearly show these supplemental brake cylinders mounted "high and outside" on the truck frame of GN 400.

More Photos of GN SD45 400 HUSTLE MUSCLE at the Jackson St. Roundhouse. Ralph Back all photographs
Before Repaint May 6, 2006	Turntable View July 19, 2007	Side View July 19, 2007	Front View July 19, 2007	Roster View July 19, 2007	Low Angle View December 16, 2006	Rear View December 9, 2006

Credit goes to MTM member Ron Erickson for providing maintenance for the HUSTLE MUSCLE and keeping it in excellent operating condition.

GN 400 contributes its presence to MTM's GN streamlined train set.

GN 400 participated in the dedication ceremony for the new turntable installation at the Jackson St. Roundhouse on December 19, 2001. GN 400 (Ralph Back photograph) was pushed on to the turntable and the turntable with GN 400 (Ralph Back photograph) was turned 360° to signify the completion of the project.

Sources:

1. "Burlington Northern 1973 Annual" by F. Hol Wagner, Jr., Motive Power Services 1973.
2. "GREAT NORTHERN Motive Power Review Color Pictorial - Volume 2 -" by Joseph W. Shine, FourWaysWest Publications 1993.
3. "SOUTHERN PACIFIC HISTORIC DIESELS VOLUME 12 EMD SD45 LOCOMOTIVES" by Joseph A. Strapac, Shade Tree Books 2005.
4. Thanks to Ed Fulcomer of Ft. Collins, CO for the use of his original Kodachrome slide for scanning and use in this Web page and the Summer 2007 issue of the MINNEGAZETTE to document BN 6430.

Last updated: 08/07/2007

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