During the annual meeting of the Railway Fuel and Operating Officers Association in September 1962, General Electric gave a major presentation on the U25B, which was followed (per normal procedure) by an open question and answer session from the floor.
During this, a Mr. Engel, of the Chesapeake & Ohio, asked the following question: "I was wondering -- when the demonstrators were coming around, there was the fact brought to light that the locomotive may be upped to 3000 horsepower and the fact that we may be going to parallel operation."
Mr. Robert Coultas, manager of domestic sales at the time, fielded the question essentially in the negative, although he did say that he didn't hear the complete question.
However, it does give a small twinkle of support in the sense that somebody, somewhere apparently made such a statement -- that somebody apparently being a representative of General Electric, who was on board for the aforementioned demonstration tour. From this, it is difficult to tell whether the implication of parallel operation was for the later U30, or was some fragmented fact from earlier plans. The question isn't specific enough to get anything better than just the notions of 3000 HP units in late 1962, and of parallel traction motor connections.
It is true, though, that GE made the move to alternator-rectifier transmission with the relatively large GTA-9 and then later replaced it with the smaller GTA-11; perhaps the implication of "full parallel" is better suited to advance suppositions about the U30 than it is to lingering "coulda beens" from the U25, at least by this question and answer.
-Will Davis
