From a railfan perspective, this is going to destroy the FEC for me. I LOVE being able to watch trains and not have to worry about hearing the boring GEs I hear every day on the CSX. Besides the Florida Central, the next nearest all-EMD railroad of any decent size and HP is states away!
I never thought that I would live to see the day where someone is looking for EMD products for some variety in their train-watching.
These in their historic paint scheme beat the Alaskan Railroad colors on the SD70M-2’s any day I think.
All NS Dash 9-40CW and ES40DC units have had their horsepower increased from 4000 to 4400 recently. This was done due to the decrease in coal trains and the increase in the importance of intermodal trains where speed outweighs fuel savings. As far as I know new DC traction high horsepower mainline service locomotives are no longer offered in their catalogs by EMD or GE. FEC probably chose GE over EMD due to better financing terms that was offered to the railroad by the builder. Tim NS Locomotive Engineer
FEC went with GE since they’ve been disappointed with their SD70M-2’s which they aren’t even going to be keeping.
Any idea why the SD70M-2s are disappointing for their use? Quality issues? High diesel consumption? Expensive to operate?
Quality issues, they’ve had an unacceptably low availability rate.
Hopefully their shop forces will better be able to deal with their ES44C4’s since they’re much more familiar with modern run through GE power than they were modern EMD power. They primarily selected EMD’s last time since they’ve always had good experiences with EMD power and had never purchased anything else.
But for whatever reason, it hasn’t panned out to their satisfaction.
[8D]these will be the first ever GE products on this line. a new mentality today. I miss ed balls saying “confusion to the enemy” we are now the enemy[banghead]P. S. love the speedway[8-|] to sunshine paint heratige units still the only less than class one with a company historian in Miami. god bless seth bramson
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Somebody spoke of 90% parts interchangeability between M-2’s and ACe’s. Incorrect.
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NA GE freight locomotives have far more domestic content than the NA EMD locomotives. ACe’s have their chassis fabricated in Mexico. Traction motors are also constructed in Mexico. Inverters and associated equipment come from Japan. Engine and main alt comes from Chicago. Truck frames are from one of the Balkan countries. Cabs used to be split between EMD and Wabtec. Almost everything else is buy-outs. Assembled in Mexico at Sahagun by BBD.
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The old EMD is dead. What remains bears little or no resemblance to what was.
Karl
Outside of the traction motors, inverters, a few more computers, and a few miscellaneous parts on the AC model due to the different transmission systems, there’s a lot of commonality between the two in their components, training, many of their major subsystems, etc.
Anyways, my fault for poor wording. I didn’t mean to suggest that literally ~90% of their components were shared where their numbers or dollar value was concerned. Rather, I wanted to stress that there was indeed a lot of commonality there between the SD70M-2/ACe/P4 models.
If FEC went shopping for AC power and was open to both EMD and GE, their existing SD70M-2 fleet would’ve been a significant factor in their decision making process since there’s indeed significant savings there with simplified parts inventories and several other major areas. The P4 or the full ACe is not so radically different from the M-2 that there isn’t a lot that would be shared between the two models.
It’s all but undebatable here with this regional not only going to GE but actually dumping their young SD70M-2 fleet that EMD wasn’t a legitimate contender for this order. It wasn’t a matter of the AC SD70ACe or the new competitor to the C4 being so different from the SD70M-2 that they could start with a clean slate with their considerations here.
Even without any inside information, logic clearly says that they went into this wanting GE, not EMD products. If they were happy or at least somewhat satisfied with their M-2’s and were considering P4’s or full ACe’s, factors like training of their mechanical forces would’ve been a major consideration.
A small regional doesn’t add a new brand to their roster and abandon modern power lightly.
[quote user=“NorthWest”]
I think part of the break with DC is that since they are purchasing GEs, which have no major parts that are compatible with the rest of the fleet, they might as well go with the advantages
My wording on that quoted post was rather unclear. Some were wondering why FEC went AC, and if you are going with another builder because you are dissatisfied by one, it makes sense to go for AC.
They went AC since that’s all that’s offered these days. DC units would be special orders and more expensive than the C4. GE hasn’t outshopped a ES44DC in half a decade.
The C4 is claimed to be equal to or better performing than the ES44DC, is offered at a comparable cost, and offers significant maintenance savings with their four AC motors not possible with the DC counterpart. And for a larger line, it can do things that aren’t possible with DC motors like pitch hit in the consist of a heavy coal train without special worries about its traction motors and also increases the commonality with the full 6 axle AC power on the roster.
FEC went into this wanting GE power. AC just happens to be what was offered. The ES44DC is effectively discontinued and unless someone comes knocking with a large order, they’re going to pay for what amounts to a special order.
I’m sure if the C4 didn’t exist that they’d be buying the ES44DC. The premium price of a 6 motor AC motor doesn’t offer enough advantages to a line with minimum grades to justify the significant extra cost.
But with the C4, they get the benefits of both. A cost comparable to modern DC power yet the lower maintenance traction motors with longer mean times between failures of AC power. They’re not doing this because they have great need for the extra adhesion AC offers or because they want to run heavy trains at 5mph over the crest of a mountain range without wrecking the traction motors.
The first GE’s have been rolling for several days now.
The remainder will be arriving over the new few weeks.
Nice of the cop to stop for the crossing protection activation, and back up so as not to be hit by the descending gate. But - what was all the manuvering about after the train was alread well over the crossing???
Noticed the FEC Private Cars on the rear of the train.
Not my video, but I think he was parking rather than just waiting for the train. And then decided to try to get a little closer to the side of the street.
Do police cars have interior dome lights? I wonder if he was even inside the vehicle by the end of the video.
excellent thanks
I know that EMD is closed until 2017, but why the heck would the FEC jump from light EMD D.C. To heavy GE AC? I understand the run through power familiarity and higher power but there are no interchangeable parts for these engines.
In Cincinnati, sharonville specifically and Colorado Springs it is not uncommon to find a train limping across a crossing. Most of the time it is limping because one of NS’ or BNSF - whatever’s or cheap Gevo’s blew a turbocharger.
I can see what brakie meant when he posted a comment to the shortline motive power Colum.
how long do they think these things are going to last? The -7’s are being sent to the recycling yard as fast as possible while used -2’s are selling like candy. The FEC should know that, didn’t they just pick up some UP sd40-2’s in 2012?
There’s not much that’s interchangeable between a SD70M-2 and their GP38/GP40/SD40 fleet, either. So that’s not an issue.
And SD70M-2’s are state of the art 4,300 HP DC machines intended for duties like hauling heavy double stacks at mainline speeds. Nothing “light” about them in the slightest.
They’re switching due to disatisfaction with the EMD product and due to their desire to grow their late model locomotive fleet to handle a greater percentage of their traffic along with projected growth. They will also be switching to burning LNG as part of this modernization of their road fleet.
Rather than add to a small fleet of leased power that they haven’t been completely satisfied with, or maintain two different types of late model power from different manufacturers, they’re just dropping the 8 SD70M-2’s from the fleet.
Seems logical to me.
I didn’t know about the lack of interchangeable parts, that makes more sense.
But l know that there is a history of GE’S not aging well. I have seen GE’S blow turbos and they do put on quite a show. Just look up videos on the internet.
I’m just saying that the great GE’S of today will probably be grand junk in 10 years. Remember the U25B?
I Know a guy who used to work for GE aviation. He was not surprised that GE used the FDL from 1959 to2005. In fact, he even said that it “sounds like something GE would do. Fire it up, we’re going to see how hot this thing runs. Buy a chemical polymer division have them work with it.”
The star child we call the ES44C4 may mature into an engine that actually performs like C4 (BOOM!)
CSX’s original CW44AC’s are 20 years old.