Does anyone know of any regionals that employ GE six axles of any type?
I thought I remember Randy metioning that one was testing some but hadn’t heard any more. I have seen many in lease service recently on the UP…some where even ex-UP although most were ex-BN.
Minnesota Commercial has an SF30C (Santa Fe rebuild of U36C) and I believe a couple C30 or C36-7’s, according to my most recent roster. Quebec North Shore & Labrador (QNSL) has C40-8M’s and C44-9W’s. Can’t think of any others beside MMA.
http://www.jefflubchanskycpa.com/n&e.html
Links to some Nashville & Eastern photos
A set of ex-Amtrak F40’s
A set of 4 axle GE’s, 1 CSX hulk
mostly ex-NS units
Some ex-C&NW gallery cars
Construction on the commuter line to begin in about 4 weeks!
for Music City Star commuter line.
Internally, GE Transportation Systems keeps a list of every single short line and regional in the country and what type of engines it uses. As far as I got reading the list into the As, EMD seemed to have a lock on motive power on small railroads. That sounds bad, but it show GETS that it has a big opportunity to sell, sell, sell.
Jock Ellis
I believe the Cartier Railway in Quebec uses AC4400’s.
Wgldlgn, thanks for the links to the pics!
The Nashville & Eastern, now has a C30-7, from CSX, ne’Family Lines. http://www.jefflubchanskycpa.com/CSX7025NSHVLTN-AU18-02DG388.jpg
It runs thru Cookeville to Algood, with a related GE unit. The backhaul, is ten air op. side dumps, loaded westbound.
Imagine, buying engines no one else wants, cheep!
BC Rail also has C40-8M’s, C44-9W’s, and I think C36-7M’s.
We are having a great time up here in Maine with our fleet of C-30-7s. Look for a new paint sceme soon.
Randy
Oh, a new paint scheme? Nice, can’t wait to see it!
Lake Superior & Ishpeming operates about a dozen U30C’s of BN ancestry which replaced RSD12’s and RSD15’s. LS&I has never owned EMD locomotives.
So can you upgrade/uprate a C30-7 to a C36-7 easily. They look the same on the outside. I was curious if a rack/injector setting change or the like is the only difference between the two.
I know in Estonia (not the US) has many rebuilt and updated C30-7 and C36-7 operating,
The main reason reason for EMD being prevalent on small lines is maintenance cost.
EMDs are easy to maintain and reliable.
Kyle/Statesrail had a fleet of U30C’s and U30B’ (ex BN) and had purchased 10 NS 8050 class C30-7’s when RailAmerica borg-ed them . The big GE’s are now history for almost a year now. (The NS units mostly sat in storage, stacks capped at Phillipsburg, KS and later Stuttgart, KS )
The U30B’s were mostly hangar queens for parting out, although several did run for a brief period.
EF Vitoria a Minas in Brazil has also been purchasing second-hand GE’s although they are being re-trucked from C-C to B-B-B-B in order to fit the meter gauge. The frame is also being extended to accomodate the longer wheelbase.