Loco "bodies" on interstate

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Occasionally while travelling between Louisville & Elizabethtown Ky on I-65 south, I will see a semi headed northbound with a flat bed that is hauling what appears to be the back halves of a new locomotive body (usually 2) They are just basic bodies with no louvers installed ( just the openings for them) in primer

Possibly SD70Aces from look of the “fins”

Does anyone have any info on where these units are coming from or headed?

I have not yet been able to get a photo since we are travelling in opposite directions at highway speeds

2

I know there’s a Progress Rail plant south of Cincinnati, in Taylor Mill Kentucky. Maybe there are headed to or from there?

3

I am thinking maybe they are going to the PR plant in Muncie IN, but seems to me they would manufacture the bodies there as well.

Would love to catch one at a truckstop to “pick the drivers brain”…lol

4

I live near Interstate 90 in Ohio. I frequently see locomotive components, hoods, cabs, fuel tanks, etc. traveling on flat beds heading for the GE Locomotive plant in Erie, PA.

Many fabricators work under contract to supply component parts. A fairly small fab shop in my area made traction motor gear box housings for both GE and what was then EMD.

Here is one such fabricator that specializes in cabs and hoods.

http://supersteel.com/

Locomotives these days are assembled the same way we modelers “kitbash”.

Ed

5

Maybe the diner crew can do a visit, about 20 miles from Kalmbach. [(-D]

Mike.

6

I have seen these also, and have noticed that the trucking companies are just over the Rio Grande in Texas, leading me to believe the bodies are fabricated in Mexico and then final assembled in Erie, PA.

Rick Jesionowski