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  • New addition to Evolution Series family: ES43BBi

  • Discussion of General Electric locomotive technology. Current official information can be found here: www.getransportation.com.
Discussion of General Electric locomotive technology. Current official information can be found here: www.getransportation.com.

Moderators: MEC407, AMTK84

 #1288694  by MEC407
 
GE has announced a new addition to the Evolution Series family of locomotives: the ES43BBi.

From Railway Gazette:
Railway Gazette wrote:Featuring GE’s new AC traction motor for 1 000 mm gauge, the Bo-Bo-Bo-Bo ES43BBi would feature individual axle control, improving adhesion and offering double the tractive effort of existing DC-motored designs dating from the 1970s and 1980s. According to GE, this would enable two locomotives to haul freight trains currently requiring between three and five six-axle locos.

GE Transportation Technology Director Marc Flammia said that the ES43BBi would meet ‘a major demand in the national market’, enabling 1 000 mm gauge operators to move ‘more freight at a lower cost’. As well as the lower maintenance requirements of AC traction motors, the new design would offer the potential to reduce emissions by up to 80%, he said.
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/trac ... ution.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1288850  by Allen Hazen
 
Something old, something new, I don't know if anything is borrowed, but definitely something blue!
GE has long offered, for its metre-gauge Brazilian customers, locomotives whose basic, above the deck, equipment is like that of a top-of-the-line domestic unit, but running on eight axles (four two-axle trucks, in pairs on span bolsters: sort of a metre-gauge version of the running gear of the earlier U.P. GTEL units, though with the B-trucks of an FB-2-ish design rather than drop-equalizer).

What's new is using AC traction motors. (This isn't GE's first use of AC traction motors on narrow-gauge diesels though: GE and Goninan have offered AC six-axle locomotives to Ausralia's Queensland Railways. I forget whether the big South African order still being built is for AC or DC motored units.)

Some of the earlier B+B - B+BGE units for Brazil looked as if they had carbodies minimally modified from domestic (Dash-8 or Dash-9) designs, but the artist's impression shown is a bit different. There is a narrow short hood: apparently Brazilian railways don't insist on "North American" cabs, though many GE units for Brazil have had the domestic wide-nosed cabs. And the radiator area looks different: the Evolution Series gas/air intercooler assembly projects out to the sides, but behind it it looks as if the main radiator area doesn't have any "wingspan." Perhaps the over-all length is enough greater than that of a domestic unit to allow a narrower but longer radiator? (Note that some Goninan-GE units in Australia, with 16-FDL engines, also manage with wingspan-less radiators.)

--

At the bottom of the article linked, there are links to "related articles": articles relevant to GE locomotives or to Brazilian railways. Click on "Big day for the North-South Railway": there's a photo of the hind end of GE 4-axle Dash-7. Numbered in the 3600's, basic colour blue: would this be an ex-Conrail B36-7?
 #1289456  by NorthWest
 
This appears to be a response to EMD's proposed Brazil-built meter gauge B-B+B-B SD70ACe/45 and SD80ACe. Interesting that they are using a standard cab, though, and not the standard GE export wide cab. (This cab has sloped sides, but is very similar to the US wide cab.)
Regarding the radiator, Brazilian units aren't required to meet emissions requirements as strict as those in the US, so the radiator capacity required to keep the engines cool may be less(?).
Allen, I think you are correct, I've seen pictures of units with the full CR insignia on the side.
 #1392290  by MEC407
 
Photo by Daniel K. Trevisan:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/582138/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1392591  by Allen Hazen
 
Thanks for posting that link!
Remarks:
--Color scheme reminiscent of EMD's SD-45 demonstrators and the EMD and GE units for Detroit Edison.
--Why is it "ES-43" when domestic units with the same basic engine are "ES-44"? Is the power really lower, or is GE using the number to make some arcane distinction of its own?
--The eight-axle running gear uses up length! The ladders at the corners look as if they are designed, in part, to allow more room for the front truck than the steps used on domestic units would, and the fuel tank looks shorter than on domestic units. (Note what seem to be air reservoirs under the walkway at the rear of the units: placed so as not to steal any of the fuel tank's volume?)