EMD DDM45

The EMD DDM45 is a metre gauge diesel-electric locomotive built by EMD for the Estrada de Ferro Vitoria a Minas in Brazil. The DD in the name means eight axles in two trucks, a D-D wheel arrangement, the M stands for the metre gauge track it was to run on and the 45 refers to the EMD SD45 from which it was derived. In the early 1970s the railroad wanted to expand its roster with the most powerful single-engined locomotives available, and the SD45 was the highest-rated EMD model then offered. An SD45 with its three-axle trucks did not suit metre gauge track, because the smaller traction motors could not take the full current of the 3,600 horsepower prime mover, so EMD proposed a metre gauge version of the four-axle Flexicoil-D bogies like those under the domestic DD35, DD35A and DDA40X, whose two extra traction motors allowed full power.