Favorite GE engine?

44 tonners. Look at how many 44Ts are still running as opposed to U-boats. They were real tanks, with similar electrical equipment (scaled down) to an Alco switcher.

And the D-17000 Cat. wasn't pushed too hard, hardly enough power to hurt itself. Simple and reliable, although don't try to power brake like with a larger unit; the TMs weren't up to it, perhaps the only weakness aside from overall unit size and weight.

The GE SG10B units operated by South African Railways (Suid Afrikaanse Spoorwees) are my favorite GE's. They look like a model locomotive, something a child would play with. Totally different in character from the GE's in North America.

At the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad, we've got a 23-ton GE switcher. It is very similar to the traditional GE 44-tonner, except it is narrow gauge and has one prime mover instead of two. It was built in 1949. It's not my favorite GE, but I'm quite fond of it.

My favorite GE is the C32-8. Only 10 of them were ever built and they were all for Conrail. I like the way the cab roof is slightly lower than the body and the way those red marker lights are mounted next to the number boards. What a great looking locomotive!

- Joe M.

My favorite GE is the C39-8 with the rounded cab roof lower than the dynamic brake housing. Also, it does not have the flares under the radiator wings like on later model Dash 8's. The C32-8 is another one of my favorites along with all the dash 8 units.

At night, I once saw a C39-8 emit a 6 or 7 foot flame from the exhaust stack--vary impressive, although the unit was in the middle of a consist of three. I also have a video, KCS and Kudzu, which shows a flame coming from a C39-8 in another location on KCS's Transcontinental division.

Favorite is the 35 Ton GE we use at Bunge grain elevator where I work.It was built in 1958 and has seen a major overhaul. Joe G.

ConRail had some nice GE's in the early era: B23-7s, U23B, U33/36C, U34CH. The U34CH is my favorite probably. Could pull passenger or freight.

Mine has to be the old LMX B39-8Es, even only if they had a good run on BN. I really did like the paint scheme, and the fact that they were BN's only four-axle production Dash 8s.

I love the sounds of the P42DC...Those are Ausom engines. Although I've never seen a P40 I have heard they sound the same. The P32's are ausom units; there base can be heard a long way off. I've only seen engine 711 - in Chicago Union Station. O Yeah didn't know CUS had Third Rail Tracks... That'll Be The Day.

Metra MP36PH-3 416 Out
GE Forum Moderator

I am not a GE fan but my favorite would have to be the huge, twin-engined U50s that Union Pacific used to have.

Hi,

When were the U50C's built and how much horsepower did they have?

MP36 416 Out
"Amtrak could take care of there engines.
They just won't."

the U50 was two U25 in one carbody for Total HP of 5000.

GE built two different 5000 hp twin-engine diesels.
The first is the one Dutch Railnut describes: (16-cylinder) engines as in the U25B, built basically for UP (SP took three as a sample) in about 1963. This one had eight axles: four standard two-axle trucks (as on U25B), two on a span bolste at each end. (EMD's equivalent was the DD35, with a newly designed four-axle truck.)
The second was the U50C, built for UP alone in 1969-1971. By this time GE was able to get 5000 hp out of two 12-cylinder engines, allowing a slightly smaller locomotive on two three-axle trucks. (A GE drawing showed the unit on the FB-3 trucks used on U30C, etc, but all those actually built had drop-equalizer trucks from traded in "Gig Blow" gas turbine locomotices: perhaps unfortunately, as the very heavy U50C suffered truck-frame cracking.) They had design flaws-- the worst was apparently a prone-ness to electrical fires due to the use of aluminum wiring-- and were retired by the mid-1970s.