Join the discussion on the following article:
Trains News Wire EXCLUSIVE: EMD set to deliver first SD70ACe-P6 order
Join the discussion on the following article:
Trains News Wire EXCLUSIVE: EMD set to deliver first SD70ACe-P6 order
Yep, I agree with Dr. Theisen. I recall in my younger days of watching GP-38’s and SD-40’s on the MoPac, all the while hearing the old timers lament that they all looked alike. Well, at the risk of sounding like an old-timer, all of the GE yada yada whatever’s dash AC’s running around, it’s not really exciting. You travel 500 miles from home looking to see something different, and what do you see? Yet another UP GE blah blah blah…
I remember this being a big complaint among many railroads, railroaders, & repairmen. If one inverter went out, you lost half your available power & the whole truck had to be taken out, whereas with having one per axle, you only lost a sixth of the power + easier to switch out one axle vs. an entire wheelset. Hopefully the P6 proves to be a big break for EMD.
Hopefully, by going with individual inverters for each axle, Electro-Motive will be able to sell more SD70ACe’s. The large numbers of GE look alike models get boring to watch going through my city.
EMD needs to get with the program. The one complaint I hear about EMD is the software. This problem has been going on for years now. Does anyone knows if that problem has been solved? Because I am really sick and tired of looking at GEs whatever.
If CN purchased 4 they were leasing, before winter and we haven’t heard rumbling from them, that’s a good sign that EMD has a well running Loco. I can imagine the traction advantages over the P4 as well. If the Cats hold up, I bet this Loco can do a whole lotta work
The fist and last axles tend to wear such that their wheel’s diameter differs from the others, thus that 1 invertor per truck will be loading the three motors against a wheelslip detection system that tells it one axle is turning faster than the other two… that’s wheel slip or creep.
So, recontoure the wheels, keep the self-steering trucks healthy or go for one invertor per axle…
Be sides, if one Tract. Motor goes down, 1/6 of the locomotive power, instead of half, is lost.
I’m fortunate to work for BNSF RAILWAY and thank my lucky starts I get to use all this “new power” on a daily basis. While the new EMD’s are quieter, pull harder, and have dyno’s that are the best, period, their computers are more difficult to use and are not as user friendly as the GE’s. But on heavy trains (loaded coal, tac, grain, etc…) give me the EMD’s anyday.
SD70ACe-P6?
And they said Baldwin had a naming scheme.
When i was a kid, i got a diesel spotters guide so i could tell an F-3 from an E-8. Jeez…now its complicated.