They had a new show on last night. I cant remeber the name. It was about a locomotive shop in Erie, PA. How there were built. Large cranes were used to move them around the plant. They said it takes about 3 days to build one. They have a test track in the back of the plant, to test the engines out. The top speed they got to was 65. I didnt know how much computer technology was in the engines. It was a great clip they had on the engine plant. It was about 15 mins. long.
The show you mentioned was “Really Big Things”, and it was a profile of GE’s locomotive plant in Erie, PA. It aired at 8PM EST. The host, Matt Rogers, followed the assembly line of the plant from start to finish and got to run a GEVO demonstrator on the GE test track.
I was a little surprised by the opening shot of our fearless (and a bit ignorant) host wandering down the middle of the tracks talking about the railroad. Then we cut to a shot of him four feet from trackside as the GE demonstrator goes by at a fairly high rate of speed.
Other than that, it was fifteen minutes of bliss for me, too. Too bad the folks at EMC didn’t invite him over to their shop first, but that’s a personal bias. EMD’s rule!
Erik
…Yes, I saw some of it too…They indicate they have 4 miles of track to do their check out on their new builds. Would have liked to have caught the whole program.
Believe they indicated the engine {Prime mover},weighed 48,000 lbs. they lowered into the brand new engine…Was it a V-12…and 4300hp…I believe that’s correct. The engine glided along very nicely on their test run. To my surprise the test engineer allowed the visiting host to sit in the engineer’s seat and at the controls. Upon starting he told him to go ahead and put in notch 8 and it started out just smooth like. That progression must be closely controlled by computer. To my surprise their test track does come to an end…Thought it might be a large circle as such. Overall, to me…those kinds of programs are interesting…Especially when dealing with a new build, railroad engine.
Thanks Modelcar. I watched that program last night, but apparently missed the part where they gave the length of the test track. I was surprised to see that it was a dead end too. Overall, it was a pretty good program, but much too short.
Tom
I tried to find an image of the GE plant and test track on Google Earth, but didn’t have any luck. I’ll have to keep trying. You’d think it would be easy to pick up on a photo map. Can anybody tell me what part of the city it’s in? Thanks
I watched a similar episode of GE’s plant in eire making a bunch of BNSF and CP GEVOs, showing ths same things, except it was on the show called “Made in America” on the travel channel.
The GE plant and test track is located in eastern Erie. The GE plant is a very large complex, so it shouldn’ be hard to find by following the tracks. This area and east past North East, PA are great areas for train watching. CSX and NS mains run along each other and are usually busy. CSX/NYC and NS/Nickel Plate. Nice RR bridge east of North East. Also, in North East, PA is the Lake Shore RR Museum The last time I was at Erie, 2004, the GE test track had overhead catenary for also test their electrics. Nice wine country and the smell is great during the grape harvesting in the Fall. Hope that helps. Bob
…Yes, I noted the catenary along & above the test track Bob on that program. And M. Siding, I used “Flash Earth” to look around in Erie for the GE Assembly plant but didn’t really know just how to identify it. Found Plenty of RR track but again, wasn’t sure just which plant might be the one we’re looking for. The Flash Earth website really brings the landscape in quite clear though.
The GE complex is 300+ acres in size. On Terra Server it can be seen at the location ( latitude of -80.02578 / longitude of 42.14560 ). Also I just looked up the GE Transportation Erie website, it has nice photos and information, a section for the rail enthusiast and info on their museum. This is the site address: (https://www.getransportation.com/general/aboutus/about_us.asp) I hope this helps in finding it. Bob
Unfortunately, the Google photograph of the Erie area is low quality.
I saw the last part of this segment purely by accident and enjoyed it - even with safety short comings. Did you notice that part of the test track has 4 rails for testing various non-standard gauges?
dd
…Now that you {d d}, brought up that fact I do remember noticing that section of track…
But believe that was rails placed in the track center similar as done at some tunnels and most bridges to protect equipment if it happens to derail…Helps keep it up on the ROW, etc…
I stand corrected if not so, but trying to remember, that’s what it seemed to be to me.
IIRC guard rails are much closer to the running rail that was shown in the video - that’s what suggests narrow gauge testing. Also the fact the narrow gauge exports are significant business.
dd
…I don’t recall seeing any multi rail switch…