An EMD GP39-2 is a 4-axle diesel locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

 built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between 1974 and 1984. 239 examples of this locomotive were built for American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 railroads. Part of the EMD Dash 2

EMD Dash 2

On January 1, 1972, General Motors' Electro-Motive Division introduced its new Dash 2 line of diesel-electric locomotives. All designations of these new models were those of the former models with "-2" added...

 line, the GP39-2 was an upgraded GP39

EMD GP39

An EMD GP39 is a 4-axle diesel locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between June 1969 and July 1970. Power was provided by a turbocharged EMD 645E3 12-cylinder engine which generated 2300 horsepower ....

. Power for this locomotive was provided by a turbocharged 12-cylinder

Cylinder (engine)

A cylinder is the central working part of a reciprocating engine or pump, the space in which a piston travels. Multiple cylinders are commonly arranged side by side in a bank, or engine block, which is typically cast from aluminum or cast iron before receiving precision machine work...

 EMD 645E3 diesel engine, which could produce 2,300 horsepower

Horsepower

Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...

.

Unlike the original GP39, which sold only 23 examples as railroads preferred the reliable un-turbocharged GP38

EMD GP38

An EMD GP38 is a 4-axle diesel locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between January 1966 and December 1971. Power was provided by an EMD 645 16-cylinder engine which generated ....

, the GP39-2 was reasonably successful, ascribed to its better fuel economy relative to the GP38-2

EMD GP38-2

An EMD GP38-2 is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive of the road switcher type built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. Part of the EMD Dash 2 line, the GP38-2 was an upgraded version of the earlier GP38...

 which became of more interest in the energy-crisis 1970s, and to its better performance at altitude.

Original Owners

The GP39-2 sold to five railroads and two industrial operators:

Railroad	Quantity	Road numbers
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...	106	3600-3705
Burlington Northern Railroad Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996....	40	2700-2739
Delaware and Hudson Railway Delaware and Hudson Railway The Delaware and Hudson Railway is a railroad that operates in the northeastern United States. Since 1991 it has been a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway, although CPR has assumed all operations and the D&H does not maintain any locomotives or rolling stock.It was formerly an important...	20	7601-7620
Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation	32	1-3,705-711,779-799,905
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad was incorporated May 23, 1870. In its earliest days the MKT was commonly referred to as "the K-T", which was its stock exchange symbol; this common designation soon evolved into "the Katy"....	20	360-379
Phelps Dodge Corporation	1	33
Reading Railroad Reading Company The Reading Company , usually called the Reading Railroad, officially the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway until 1924, operated in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states...	20	3401-3420