by MEC407
(Moved from the "favorite GE locomotives" topic to its own separate topic)
I was uploading a photo to Railroad Picture Archives today, and as I was browsing other members' recent uploads, I came across this very nice photo of a brand new U50 in transit to Union Pacific. The photo was taken on July 18, 1964, and the unit was placed in service four days later. Check it out: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=2299154
Union Pacific ran it for 10 years... which, if I'm not mistaken, is longer than they ran their H-engined SD90MACs.
Allen Hazen wrote:GE built two different 5000 hp twin-engine diesels.Apologies for resurrecting an old topic, but I searched the forum and (surprisingly) this was the only mention I found of the (in)famous GE U50.
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.
I was uploading a photo to Railroad Picture Archives today, and as I was browsing other members' recent uploads, I came across this very nice photo of a brand new U50 in transit to Union Pacific. The photo was taken on July 18, 1964, and the unit was placed in service four days later. Check it out: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=2299154
Union Pacific ran it for 10 years... which, if I'm not mistaken, is longer than they ran their H-engined SD90MACs.
MEC407
Moderator:
Pan Am Railways — Boston & Maine/Maine Central — Delaware & Hudson
Central Maine & Quebec/Montreal, Maine & Atlantic/Bangor & Aroostook
Providence & Worcester — New England — GE Locomotives
Moderator:
Pan Am Railways — Boston & Maine/Maine Central — Delaware & Hudson
Central Maine & Quebec/Montreal, Maine & Atlantic/Bangor & Aroostook
Providence & Worcester — New England — GE Locomotives