1000 new GE locos for India

[MEC407]

From International Railway Journal:

GE Transportation has unveiled the final design for the 700 3.36MW and 300 4.47MW locomotives it is delivering to Indian Railways (IR).
. . .
GE is set to build at least 1000 Evolution Series diesel locomotives at the plant, with a delivery rate of 100 units per year at a basic price of Rs 146bn, but only the first 100 locomotives will be purchased outright. The plant is expected to be completed in 2018.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/lo ... eiled.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Allen Hazen]

Thank you for posting this: I must confess that I am largely dependent on your charity for press stories from the Erie PA newspaper… and many other sources!
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Picture in the article (which enlarges when clicked on) has a definitely GE-ish look to it: the radiators in particular. The noseless cab (cabs, actually: the unit is double-ended, of the configuration known in Australia as "dogbone" ((like the BR Class 58, and like many EMD units for Ireland and Australia)): hood unit with a noseless cab at each end) has a certain family resemblance to the E-60 and BQ23-7 cabs. The trucks (my guess is that an Indian speaking English would call them bogies) are not exactly like anything I am familiar with: probably a fabricated rather than cast truck frame, as is usually the case for trucks on locomotives designed for railways that don't tolerate the extremely high per-axle weights of the North American rail system.

The mix of power ratings is interesting. 3.36 MW sounds roughly comparable to the rating of domestic Dash-9, ES44 and ET44 types, and the article does describe them as "Evolution Series": so they will probably have 12 Cylinder GEVO engines, and if GE gives them a model designation it will be something like ES44im… 4.47 MW is higher than any North American freight railroad has ordered in recent years. (North American railroad management, it seems to me, tends to be VERY conservative!) So -- assuming that the 300 high horsepower units will be diesels and not straight electrics! -- they will probably be based on the 16 cylinder GEVO engine, like the ES59 units built for Chinese railways.

(And, given that "unit reduction" was a selling point for early second generation diesels in the 1960s, you'd think that BNSF, say, might be interested in an "ET59" for use on fast, intermodal, freight on the old Santa Fe main line. Maybe they could be obtained economically by having GE build them in India!)

[renrut44]

To gain an insight into Indian Railway thinking probably best to look at the licensed EMD units produced at DLW Varanasi, a production unit owned by Indian Railways.

DLW manufactured 330 EMD units last year, indications are that the Varanasi Works is approaching saturation point. Alco engine production (16 cylinder blocks) has been transferred to Golden Rock (Tiruchirappalli) to clear space

Most DLW production comprises of WDG4 freight locos @ 4000HP (W=wide/D=diesel/G=goods), however there are dog bone WDP4B/WDG4B @ 4500HP (P = passenger - has hotel load HEP), and the WDG5 @ 5500HP (20-710) http://inbministry.blogspot.com.au/2013 ... first.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No Tier 4 requirement in India, I believe that DLW is now fabricating the 16-710 crankcase

The GE plant with orders for 1000 locos over 10 years should only be 1/3 the size of Varanasi. I guess one has to understand the Indian civil service mentality, still set in the Marxist central planning philosophy of prior governments. These chaps will not want a foreign owned (well 50%) semi free enterprise upstarts competing with the established parastatal manufacturing establishments (IR builds its locos/rollingstock in-house). A new JV will be viewed as a danger to the established order (same goes for the Alstom electric loco JV), and if managed/staffed from outside of the bureaucracy, may be seen as an impediment to senior apparatchik's span of control, these boyos remuneration is based on the number of heads that they command
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_ ... _Madhepura" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
12000HP is not a misprint, twin section locos so 4 bogies
http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/tech ... sword_list" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[]=alstom&sword_list[]=india&no_cache=1

The move to JV manufacturing appears to be a government incentive hoisted on the Railways. A commission by the current government discovered that associates of the prior Railways Minister had been selling the seats on the Railways Board
http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/po ... andal.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
One can only hazard a guess at the level of baksheesh on offer to Railway Board members (and senior managers), to warrent paying US$1.8 million to get ones nose into the trough