I’m considering buying an HO scale CB&Q U28B or U30B to add to my fleet. When I think of Burlington Route, I don’t usually think of GE. I notice that they did not buy many of either type. Can anyone add any insight as to what Burlington used these models for and how successful (or unsuccessful) either one was? Thanks.
I have seen photos of these running in pool service with New York Central and later Penn Central units. They might have been originally purchased for these east coast pools.
I took this photo of a Q U28B back in 1969. Mixed freight on the main line.
Back in the 60’s I lived in a small town next to the Burlington Route. It was not at all uncommon to see U25bs and U28Bs on any kind of freight and mixed in with EMD power. I can still hear that distinctive chug-chug exhaust they had. You could hear them coming a mile away. They also had U28Cs.
The primary reason GE got the Burlington order was that CB&Q wanted to show EMD it was willing to buy GEs in an effort to get a better deal on GP40s, SD40s or SD45s. In a sense it worked. Then too, Northern Pacific and Great Northern had favorable experience with both kinds of U25, U28, and U30s. So it was not as much of a surprise as it might have appeared to be at first glance.
I did a quick count and it appears that the Q had 72 U-Boats on their roster. According to the book Burlington Northern they brought 662 diesels to the BN of which 9.2% we GE’s.
The reason the C.B. & Q. purchased EMD locomotives. C B & Q just about ran through E M Ds plant. Very low cost of shipping of engines and parts.
Working relation for needs.
That is the same for the East coast purchased G.E.s.
Then pooling added different engines my influx.