Quote:
Originally Posted by 2.5Turbo
No (although I wish  ), just a couple friends who are engineers at BNSF. Are you a mechanic with UP in Grand Junction?
I have a couple other friends who are avid EMD fans who would beg to differ with that comment about GE being the best. But I agree with you on their more modern models. And you can't beat that chest-pounding "GE chug" exhaust note! GE models from the 70's and early 80's were pretty bad when it came to reliability, but within the last 10 or 15 years they've really pulled up the quality with the Dash 9 series and the AC4400. And now the Evolution series has been pushing that standard even higher. Both of my "hogger" friends tell me that the ES44DC and ES44AC are two of the best locomotives they've operated since the venerable SD40-2 of the late 60's and 70's. Much quieter and smoother in the cab, very responsive engine compared to the slow-loading 7FDL, and great traction control computers. No wonder GE keeps pumping them out of the factory  |
The problem I have with the new EMD locomotives is the propultion system. The only have 2 inverters to power 6 traction motors. If you loose 1 inverter you loose 3 traction motors and that can stall a train. Almost all the trains out of here are coal at about 1.1 hp per ton (iirc) so when they have problems it really slows them down.
EMD engines are cool though with gear driven turbo's they spool up fast and almost no smoke if they run right.