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  • GE BB40-9WM

  • 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

 #796749  by DanM
 
Hello,

i came accross some picures of the GE BB40-9WM. This is a narrow gage loco used in South America, if i guessed correctly.
Does anyone know the wheelbase (distance between axle) and the distance between the trucks?
What kind of axle load are they designed for?

Thank you,
DanM
 #796842  by MEC407
 
I don't think that answers his questions.
Wikipedia wrote:The GE BB40-9W is a narrow-gauge version of the popular GE C40-9W locomotive. All 141 examples of this locomotive are owned by the EFVM railroad in Brazil. They are equipped with four B-style trucks, two at each end replacing the conventional C-style trucks. This is necessary because EFVM tracks are 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) narrow gauge. The standard C44-9W traction motors cannot fit in the narrower trucks. To get the same total power, more of the smaller motors are needed. They are numbered 1113 to 1253.
I don't see anything there about distance between axles, distance between trucks, or axle load.
 #796859  by DutchRailnut
 
With standard weight of 425000 Lbs and 8 axles what would the axle load be ??
my abacus tells me 53125 lbs per axle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_Dash_9-44CW gave the weight.
Distance between trucks and axles is a guess for anyone unless you got a ruler.

from this picture I guess truck distance to be standard C40-9W distance
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictur ... 06%202.JPG
 #797219  by DanM
 
Thanks everyone who took the time to reply to my post. Unfortunately, i did not find yet any of the info i wanted to. The wiki does not say clearly the total weight, nor any other type of truck data. Well i guess we don't have anyone from South America with the knowledge i needed.

Thanks again,
DanM
 #797259  by Allen Hazen
 
There is a drawing and some data on the earlier BB40-8 at
http://vfco.brazilia.jor.br/ferrovias/e ... h8as.shtml

Locomotive weight is given as 160,000 kg, which comes to about 44,000 pounds per axle. The wheelbase given (metric and I didn't convert it just now) of a bit over two meters is, I guess, that for a single B truck: the two center axles on a BB "span bolster truck assembly" (there's got to be a shorter term! Doubletruck?) seem to be closer together than the two axles on a single B. The drawing is big enough that you should be able to get a fairly close approximation by measuring the drawing! (Noting that the wheels are only 36 inches rather than the 40 or more that is standard on US standard-gauge freight diesels.)

Given the way such things usually develope, I very much doubt that the BB40-9WM is any lighter, but since it is built for the same service and the earlier unit was probably as heavy as the track would stand, it probably isn't much heavier either.

These are interesting locomotives. The truck arrangement is reminiscent of the "double diesels" on the Union Pacific back in the 1960s. In both cases EMD went for a four-axle truck (on the DD35 for UP and the DDM45 for Brazil), and GE for a BB "doubletruck": two B trucks on a span bolster. For the UP, the individual B trucks were of the then-standard design with a drop equalizer; Brasil got a version in which the individual B trucks look like a meter-gauge version of the FB-2 truck GE introduced on domestic 4-axle models in about 1973.
 #799052  by John_Perkowski
 
General Discussion, Locomotives, Rolling Stock and Equipment Moderators Note:

MEC407 and I have moved this thread to his Forum, where it should get help from the GE Experts :)
 #799065  by Allen Hazen
 
Now that the string is on safely on the GE forum, I'll contribute an EMD factoid: the EMD export locomotive section of an old (1973, I think) Simmons-Boardman "Car and Locomotive Cyclopedia"(*) said that the DDM-45 weighed 357,000 pounds. So the permissible axle loading on the Brazilian ore railroads that use these 8-axle locomotives doesn't seem to have changed very much since the late 1960s.
--
(*)Humorous (?) anecdote: Simmons-Boardman sold these volumes only to employees of companies in the railroad and railroad supply industries. (Some business magazines have had similar policies: I think the idea is that they can use "And all the copies we sell go to people you might want to reach" line in selling ad space to advertisers.) Which I have never been. BUT... my then wife was a folk musician, and one of her guitar-playing friends was a brakeman on the Penn Central... So we got him to order a copy for us.