Favorite GE engine?

It's not, I guess, REALLY my favorite, but what about the 50-ton end-cab switcher? The one that looks like the runt from a litter of 70-tonners. I grew up in New York City, so there's a place for it in my heart!
The New York Subway system has a fleet of them. Some have special exhaust-processing equipment (I think it's in the huge box on the platform in front of the hood) allowing them to be used for extended times in tunnels: ride the subway after midnight and you'll often see one on a work train. They're tiny by the standards of mainline diesels, but have unmistakeable GE details (start by looking at the arrangement of windows on the side of the cab!). Now that there is no longer freight service on the ex-NYC (PC, Conrail) West Side line, these and the Amtrak and Metro North P32 dual mode Genesis types are the only GE locomotives that regularly operate on Manhattan Island!

Well GE Chug the best but I'm going with the P42DC and P32AC-DM family.

Has to be the boxcab electrics that were in Montreal commuter service for 80+ years

The Montreal boxcabs; wow, that 80+ years is something to think about. That would be like CNJ 1000 still being in service today.

(And no one has called them "Electros", as is common on the NJT forum-)

EDM5970 wrote:The Montreal boxcabs; wow, that 80+ years is something to think about. That would be like CNJ 1000 still being in service today.

(And no one has called them "Electros", as is common on the NJT forum-)

Yeah, my notes have the first one delivered in 1911 and withdrawn in 1995 to make way for Bombardier EMUs... I remember hearing a story that sometime in the 80's CN had to pull their last glass blower out of retirement to make enough vessels for the boxcabs' mercury-arc rectifyers to last until the line was rebuilt.

I think the CN boxcabs were straight DC locomotives, so, though I'm ready to believe that CN had to call someone out of retirement to make some no-longer-catalogued replacement part, I doubt it would be for rectifiers.
(Light-bulb goes on over head: Well, not ON-BOARD rectifiers... but maybe they were for mercury arc rectifiers in a substation?)

Allen Hazen wrote:I think the CN boxcabs were straight DC locomotives, so, though I'm ready to believe that CN had to call someone out of retirement to make some no-longer-catalogued replacement part, I doubt it would be for rectifiers.
(Light-bulb goes on over head: Well, not ON-BOARD rectifiers... but maybe they were for mercury arc rectifiers in a substation?)

You're probably right, I have no firsthand experience with those locos, I just remember seeing the story on the news...

PRR's E44. Brute strength and looked it. Won't win any beauty contest, but could pull like crazy.

That's how I felt about them, too.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/285 ... piodrDfqLF

http://community.webshots.com/photo/286 ... msWwvWvNAW

Glad to see someone speaking up for the "bricks"! I liked them too, and am very glad one has been preserved at R.R. Museum of Pennsylvania (Strasburg).
Do you know of a source of good close-up photos? Famously, in the 1960s-1970s, GE used truck frames (for the 3-axle FB truck on U23/30/33/36C) of two very different styles, supplied by two different suppliers (GSC and Adirondack). The one time I got to look carefully at an E-44 (it was parked at the Baltimore passenger station), I noticed that there were GSC and AD variants of the drop-equalizer truck, though the differences were more subtle. And at least the E-44 I was looking at had... one of each!

The late, great E60. 10,000 horsepower under the hood-more than an Acela Express (6000). 90 mph top speed. Classic rock 'n' roll motion.

The E-60 was only 6000 hp with a higher shorttime rating.
the 10 000 figure isa bit high.
http://www.rrmuseumpa.org/about/roster/e60.htm

You could call the GG1s General electric locomotives. I also like the look of the C32-8s in Conrail Blue and the grey Ballast Express. C39-8s also look good in Conrail blue and CSXT yn2. (paint scheme before the bright future scheme)

http://trainiaxindex.cjb.net/

keep asking keep learning

My vote goes to the 44-tonners (especially the two that served the Coudersport & Port Allegheny).