What will passenger companies do once their F59PHIs, F40PHs, P40DCs, P42DCs, MP36PH-Cs, MP36-3S', MP40-3Cs, F59PHs, F50PHs, P32-8BWHs, P32AC-DMs start to wear down? Will GE or EMD make a new four wheel axle locomotive or will they use six wheel axle units? I was thinking of maybe a GP70DCe, GP70ACe or GP70M-2 and either a ES40DC-BWH or ES44DC-BWH. What do you guys think?
Will There Be Another 4-Wheel Axle Locomotive?
- Thread starter Kris94
- Start date
NeonTheGriffon
#FurryPride
Who needs Geeps anymore? NRE clearly has the golden nugget in replacing aging GPs.
KingConrail76
Active member
if it still sounds like an EMD, I'm all okay with that....
Guess you missed the "Caterpillar" emblem then... (It'll sound more like a Bulldozer than a vintage Geep).
Illinois DOT has given go-ahead to Siemans for 4-axle passenger power, 4200hp. EMD was pretty sore at them, saying that although 4300hp is enough to get a short train up to 125mph per customer specs on a limited basis, it just isn't enough for continuous operation with larger trains, hence their denied design for 4700hp, also 4-axle. http://www.railwayage.com/index.php..._campaign=RGN+2.6.14&utm_content=Full+Article
http://www.railwayage.com/index.php...en+notice+to+proceed+on+passenger+locomotives
4-axle freight looks to be mostly hand-me-downs for the future except for complete remanufactureing jobs. New 4 axle freight units will probably not be touched again for a very long time by the biggest builders; probably due to the weight needed for future emissions control, fuel tank size, and urgent TE. With modern CAD work, these large 6 axle units can go where only Geeps once trod. Permissable axleloadings are coming up across the board, so there appears no need to go back to smaller loks unless the traffic is small enough to warrant it.