by Allen Hazen
Links have been posted to two Yahoo groups (LocoNotes and GElocos) with photos of something new on the GE test track at Erie, lettered "Vale." (This is a Brazilian operation, no?) It is said to be an ES58aci. I think that's the same model designation as the units the Chinese are getting, but this is an "Americanized" version: cab is GE's standard "North American" cab rather than the noseless design used on the Chinese units, and trucks look like domestic-style, cast-frame, "roller blades" trucks rather than the lighter-weight design used in China (and Australia: the chinese units have a truck similar to that introduced on the NR series in Oz). So it looks, in those respects, more like a standard ES44, but
--the radiator is different (in ways suggesting high cooling capacity)
--there are (at least) eight full-height doors on the long hood side (suggesting a 16-cylinder engine)
--there are two, side-by-side stacks (suggesting that GE has decided that the EVO-16, like the HDL of less-than-blessed memory, ought to have two turbochargers instead of the single turbo of an FDL or GEVO-12 engine).
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Leading to the question: why, given that North American railroads have tended to have the worlds heaviest and most powerful freight diesels, hasn't anyone asked for some of these in the US? Couldn't BNSF, for example, use pairs of these instead of trios of ES44C4 on fast freights on the Santa Fe main? Is GE having trouble getting the cooling system up to the standard needed to meet Tier N pollution regulations?
--the radiator is different (in ways suggesting high cooling capacity)
--there are (at least) eight full-height doors on the long hood side (suggesting a 16-cylinder engine)
--there are two, side-by-side stacks (suggesting that GE has decided that the EVO-16, like the HDL of less-than-blessed memory, ought to have two turbochargers instead of the single turbo of an FDL or GEVO-12 engine).
----
Leading to the question: why, given that North American railroads have tended to have the worlds heaviest and most powerful freight diesels, hasn't anyone asked for some of these in the US? Couldn't BNSF, for example, use pairs of these instead of trios of ES44C4 on fast freights on the Santa Fe main? Is GE having trouble getting the cooling system up to the standard needed to meet Tier N pollution regulations?