On this forum and others some have charcterized dash 8’s as being junk, “toasters”, slow loading, no loading, and only worthy for the scrap line. NS does not spend money foolishly, so why would they bother with this project?
You answered your own question. They may be slow loading, but they still can pull freight and earn their keep (most of the time).
What a waste of time and money! The six-axle Dash 8 line units are the worst pieces of crap we have on our roster.
I wish they would keep the standard cab. I think it looks a lot better. But I can imagine the crews like the new cabs a lot better. I’m sure they have more room and are more comfortable.
Because it’s Nothing Special
Get it? XD
Not really. Whatcha trying to say?
How about _N_othing _S_pecial
It’s a no brainer as they say, Dash 8’s were great locos, it was the series that got them ahead of EMD.
Also makes a mockery of the old, you can’t rebuild a GE line that seems to come out every now and then!
The Dash 8’s were the first GE locos in Australia and they are still going strong and the reason that nearly all the ralway company’s are now GE customers!
The issue of 'not being able to rebuild a GE may have been more of a commercial issue,i.e., the availability and cost of needed material.
Given GE’s current market penetration, there may be more current interest in development and marketing of rebuild kits for the later Dash8’s and beyond.
I agree that the Dash-8 was the locomotive that put GE in front. But, they still have the old FDL prime mover - I know of no EPA ‘part 1033’ upgrade packages to brings this into emissions compliance. I can see upgrading EMD locomotives that have a ‘710’ series power plant as it can be upgraded(like the SD60). Both UP and BNSF have dumped older GE’s of this lineage to CN as the Canadian emission restrictions do not cut in as fast. UP has a test program where older SD60 series locomotives have been upgraded with a V12-710ECO package.
Jim
There is a CFR 1033 package out there for Dash-8 GE. Both CN and CSX are installing them. Look for the radiator shutters mounted on top of the Dash-8 radiators as the most visible spotting feature.
Yeah, GE has always had a 1033 part. always meaning “since a 1033 part became a requirement”
Also, the EMD part will upgrade both 710s and 645 engines.
Also, I don’t know about schedules, but as far as I know, Canada wants rebuilds and new purchases to mach EPA regs.
In the photo the rectangulat items above the radiator look more like additional radiator cores for intercooler cooling rather than shutters. For a start shutters would have to cover the whole area of the main radiators to be effective and there wouldn’t be any advantage to a split cooling system to add shutters…
M636C
These GE’s don’t require shutters-as the radiators are dry during periods of low demand.
All and all, if the price is right-these upgrades eliminate the need to purchase new power on a unit for unit basis.
Most of the old dry type rads on the toasters are being converted to the wet type used by EMD. Reason being they are not near as prone to cracking in the winter when you pump 200 gallons of 210 degree water into -20 degree metal, as well as the safety aspect, if you open the water tank on a GE with dry rads when they have water in them the water has a nasty tendency to come spewing out at you with more velocity then you would imaging possible.
I think you are right. Has to be retrofit split cooling to keep charge air cool and lower NOx emissions. Looks like they just kinda slapped them up there on top of the existing cores.
Don’t GE radiators have a silicon joint between the tubes and headers…or am I thinking about something else… It was to handle the thermal issues. I don’t remember the Conrail GEs having radiator issues, but there were enough other issues to keep us busy!
EMDs radiators didn’t fare well with soldered tube to header joints until EMD went to mechanically bonded cores - problem solved!