Sam,I really love the Sam Adams quote too!
NS is a tight with their money as any and tighter than most; throwing around nickels like they were manhole covers. Historically, GE has been able to provide better financial terms to the carriers and the carriers are all looking for more locomotives for less $$$$$$$$$$. Operationally, any performance differences between EMD & GE are close enough that $$$$$$$$$$ carries the day.
EMD and GE are new to this business. EMD builds switchers GE builds road locomotives Every EMD engine starts with SD in the name which identifies it as a switcher GE on the other hand names their engines with the word Dash in the name. GE builds the Dash 9 and EMD builds the SD40, SD60, and the SD70 GE engines are built for speed EMD builds for power which is why both are evenly matched. There is a third heavy locomotive builder that not much have heard about they have been doing it for 150 years their name is WABTEC Industries better known as MPI historically GE and WABTEC are rivals they have been for 150 years when both entered the Current War. Westinghouse and Edison will be turning over in their graves if they hear what SEC did GE and WABTEC are going to merge the rivalry and the Current War is over.
SD originally stood for “Special Duty” and refers to the six traction motors underneath. An SD70ACe is hardly a switcher. I’m not sure where the rest of the posting came from[?]
May just be your location? It appears you’re in Illinois. EMD engines were built in LaGrange, Illinois, so it makes sense railfans around there would like them better than engines made a long ways away.
In the years before I retired in 2016, the GE’s were more reliable, EMD’s had a lot of infant mortality - fail less than 100 miles from the shop where they were ‘fixed’.
Personally I like the sound of the EMD 2-strokes - they just sound like ‘throbing power’ waiting to be unleashed. 4-strokes, not so much, didn’t like the sounds of Alco’s back in the day and don’t like GE’s today.
But a GEVO definately has that alco sound at times.
[quote user=“CSSHEGEWISCH”]
SD originally stood for “Special Duty” and refers to the six traction motors underneath. An SD70ACe is hardly a switcher. I’m not sure where the rest of the posting came from
I have also heard, for many years, that “SD” meant “Special Duty”, as CSSHEGEWISCH" has described.
Crocker Junction
General electric locomotives are notorious for slow loading. Loading is the time it takes when you put the locomotive into notch one, until it starts to move. I remember a engineer telling me once “you could read a novel by the time some of those GE’s start to load”. EMD locomotives load up very quickly and get going very quickly. That is why nearly every major railroad uses EMD switch engines for yard duty.
On freight trains regardless of length, I never noticed any difference between GE and EMD locomotives when they worked together. Both companies build good locomotives that are going to get the job done. I never heard any engineers complain about having GE or EMD locomotives on their trains. Ideally you would have all EMD or all GE locomotives on one train due to the slower loading of GE locomotives. But I remember on one train when the GE AC6000CW’s were brand new. It was our lead locomotive and it loaded up so quickly it was pulling the 6 locomotives behind us like it was nothing. A total beast of a locomotive!
As for my opinion on who I prefer. EMD. You simply can not beat the fast loading. We used a GE B40-8 to kick 80 cars in a yard one night. It was agony. Took forever. I remember a engineer once telling me “if you absolutely need a train to get somewhere as quick as possible. Put six SD40-2’s on it”. I would totally agree.
Between DC models, GEs load a lot slower than EMDs. Between modern AC models there’s not as much difference. The slowest loading AC that we had was UP9043. It was worse than any DC model GE. I’ve also seen the SD9043 loading about 10K less tractive effort than a AC4400 under full load.
EMD is not your father’s EMD. Most of my coworkers prefer modern GEs over modern EMDs. They don’t rattle as much. My concern now is that the GE locomotives will also begin to decline since GE sold off the locomotive line.
Jeff
I agree Jeff; it is most definetly not the EMD of the -2 era. In regards to the loading on the 9043’s, the few times, (and it wasn’t often) everything worked right nothing could come close to their ability to pull, doing drag tests nothing could really slow one down, and nothing could really drag it around in braking.
Hi
A comment earlier noted that SD stood for switcher. In EMD terms SW doesn’t even stand for switcher. We know GP stands for General Purpose and SD stands for Special Duty. When EMD started building switchers, they were normally either six hundred or nine hundred horsepower, and came with either cast or welded frames. The term SW originally meant a six hundred HP unit built on a welded frame. The equivalent cast frame unit was called an SC. The higher horsepower units with nine hundred horsepower were called either NC or NW. Hence we end up with models such as SC, NC, SW-1, NW-1 etc. Things got a little more confusing later on when the horsepower increased. SW-8 had 800hp, but SW-9 had 1200hp, as did the SW-7! Horsepower based model names became more common and we ended up with SW-1200, SW-1500 and MP-15 etc.
Sorry, I seem to have grossly drifted off topic. For the record, I am a die hard Alco fan.
Cheers
Steve
NZ
E = 1800 HP, and the designation stuck even though later models developed up to 2400 HP.
Does FT stand for 1400 HP or Freight, 1300 HP?
Thanks SD70Dude, that helps to complete the “off topic” picture. BL for Branch Line and MP for Multi Purpose. Have we missed anything?
Cheers From the hot summer in Central Otago, NZ
Steve
Not complete yet, we have forgotten the TA units built for Rock Island’s original Rocket trainsets. T = 1200 HP, from a single V16 Winton 201-A.
Or the one of a kind EMC Model T (Illinois Central 9202), a twin-engined 8-axle 1800 HP transfer unit.
Great stuff, and maybe not as off topic as I thought. One thing in EMD’s favour is the history. GE may have been there longer, but EMD’s history is a great story. Still love Alcos.
Steve