Just thought of another, EMD’s GP2000. Would have been along the lines of today’s Eco program, utilize original components from older GP’s like the trucks, and would’ve carried a 8 cylinder 710G3A rated at 1950 HP. Norfolk Southern came close to ordering some according to what I’ve read at a couple of different places. But it was expensive and fuel prices and air quality regulations weren’t as large of a factor back then as they are today so it went unbuilt and they started to explore the BL20 concept.
Yes, the
3-S
16-S
5-S
17A
Good thoughts everyone, keep it up!
Another entry from GE: The U18BT. I’ve seen one side elevation and it would have had a resemblance to the M420TR as delivered to R&S. This seems to be GE’s first attempt to include a switcher in the Universal line and I’m surprised that it was even cataloged, considering that EMD had the switcher market to itself for several years.
GE also proposed a U15BT which was essentially the same locomotive but with a derated engine (still an FDL 8) rated at 1,500 HP.
I have an old copy of Diesel Era that has drawings and a description,
The idea, I guess , was to offer a MP15AC equivalent…
I have a Baldwin catalog of products from 1945 that depicts some interesting unbuilt designs, including:
1000 HP C-C Road Switcher
1500 HP C-C Road Transfer (streamlined car body)
3000 HP A1A-A1A Road Locomotive
I have clickable photos of these units and more (including the experimental twin-turbo V-12 I mentioned over in the Centipede string) on our locomotive blog. Click here to see the photos:
http://railroadlocomotives.blogspot.com/2010/11/1945-baldwin-diesel-catalog.html
-Will Davis
The SD39-2
Yes, it was never catalogued, but at first, neither was the GP39-2, until it was requested. So, if EMD was asked, a SD39-2 would likely have been built.
NW
I think I read somewhere that Alco tried to sell a C640 (just a C636 with a little more horsepower), but never found any takers.
MLW actually built an M640.
That would be distinct from what the previous poster mentioned though since it had a 18 cylinder 251 to provide 4,000 HP rather than uprating the 16 cylinder model of the C-636 to push out 400 more HP which his post suggests would’ve been the case.
All of My reearch shows that the M640 was a 16 cylinder 251F prime mover rated at 4000 HP
Ira
The M640 was built with an 18 cylinder 251F.
The 18-251 in that locomotive was unusual but not impossible to find elsewhere. For example, I can tell you that the Diablo Canyon nuclear generating station has six of these 18 cylinder engines as EDG (Emergency Diesel Generator) equipment.
Fairbanks-Morse now has the ALCO 251 line, and their brochure (which lists the 18 cylinder engine as well as numerous other smaller examples) can be found here:
http://www.fairbanksmorse.com/bin/90.pdf
One note: You WILL see a 16-251F in this brochure with a gross rating of 4000 BHP, but bear in mind that this is a more modern development… and still would not have resulted in a 4000 HP rating for a locomotive, since this is engine gross or brake horsepower and not installed horsepower for traction in a locomotive.
-Will Davis
The M640 was indeed built with V-18 251 engine.
The Baldwin road transfer locomotive has a definite resemblance to the R-615E which was built for export to Argentina. It was intended to serve as competition to the Alco World Locomotive (DL-500), which turned up in Argentina, Spain, Greece, India, Pakistan, Australia, Peru and possibly other places.
I wonder how all his research could indicate otherwise. It’s a pretty widely known fact among Alco/MLW aficionados that the M640 had a 18 cylinder Alco 251 for its heart.
I’ll have to admit I had forgotten that the M640 had the two extra cylinders.
EMD was supposed to have considered something like an SDL39-2 (the original SDL39 had a lot of dash-2 parts anyway) but a combination of MILW’s bankruptcy and an oversupply of used locomotives killed it before it got too far.
Just out of curiosity – is there a catalog reference to a 2000 hp locomotive? And are there sources for plans of these locomotives? Because I have just found some.
Santa Fe wanted a cabless B40-8 just like their GP60B’s but the savings for the special order weren’t enough to justify it so they came equipped with the new North American cab.
Actually as I recall, GE actually wanted more per locomotive for the proposed booster units than they were charging for a conventional cab B40-8 so the idea was dropped.
A few years before GE had delivered a large order of B30-7Ab (3,000 HP 12-FDL) booster units to BN but by the time ATSF made the request the builder decided than anything that required major engineering changes from the standard catalog models was going to cost extra…
Overmod, the 17A is listed at 2000 HP, having two 8-cylinder engines. AIA-AIA cab unit.
No, this is from a book were Ingalls is just a footnote…
Some more:
SD59,
SD49
NW
Actually both the GP49 and GP59 were built in quantities. The 9 GP49’s were woned by ther Alaska Railroad, now retired and sold off. There were 46 Gp 59’s built, 3 EMD kept the otehr 33 are still in service for the Norfolk southern. One of them was involved itne Grantville SC accident and was rebuilt.
Ira
Hi Ira,
Yes, the GP49 and GP59 were built, but not their C-C cousins. The SD49 and SD59 weren’t built.
Regards,
NW