Southern Pacific No. 7443 was an EMD SD45 diesel locomotive that was built by the Electro-Motive Division (EMD) for the Southern Pacific Railroad in February 1967.
History[]
Southern Pacific No. 7443 was built in February 1967 and entered service on the Southern Pacific Railroad the same year in 1967, where was given its first number of 8876.
When it was first built, it was originally built as an EMD SD45 but it was rebuilt as an SD45R due to the massive 20-cylinder engines causing it to have a very bad fuel mileage and coupled with the crankshaft failures in June 1982. After being rebuilt, the locomotive was renumbered to 7443.
Then on May 12, 1989, Southern Pacific No. 7443 was involved in the 1989 Cajon Pass Runaway/San Bernardino train wreck, however, it survived that rail crash due to it being placed at the rear of the train along with SD40T-2 #8317 as it and #8317 were a helper set, it was repaired and repainted by the Southern Pacific.
No. 7443 survived into the days of Union Pacific when Southern Pacific and its parent company Rio Grande Industries had merged into Union Pacific. Southern Pacific No. 7443 was officially retired from active service on the Union Pacific Railroad on March 17, 2000, and sold to National Railway Equipment Company where it was rebuilt with 5 foot 6 inch gauge trucks, reclassified as an EMD SD40-3MP and sold to MRS Logística in Brazil now numbered as #5313.
As of today, Southern Pacific No. 7443 is currently still in service with MRS Logística as MRS Logística #5313.