That other locomotive company's FP40-- a GP40 derivative with head-end power and a cowl carbody-- was for a number of years the STANDARD North American passenger diesel: GE didn't sell any North American passenger diesels between January 1976 (end of P30CH production) and December 1991 (beginning of Dash-8 32BWH run).
QUESTION: Did GE make a proposal to Amtrak (or some commuter agency) for a unit that would have been comparable to the FP40 (i.e. a four-motor passenger diesel derived from the U30B/B30-7 in about the way the FP40 was derived from the GP40)? I don't remember any news items from the time suggesting it, but...
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Possible problem: Sensible people (among whom the current management of various commuter agencies don't seem to be numbered...) like passenger locomotives to be light-weight, light axle-loading, units: they go fast, and track damage from locomotive wheel "hammer blow" gets worse as speed increases. EMD clearly shaved ounces with the original FP40 design: it was lighter than a GP40-2 despite the cowl carbody and extra equipment. (Frame is a bit shorter, and fuel tank MUCH smaller.) GE might have had difficulty matching the weight, since GE's components are heavier (e.g. GE traction motors are heavier than EMD's, and an FDL-16 engine is heavier than a 16-645). When GE finally did build a 4-axle passenger unit of conventional road switcher design (Dash-8 32BWH) it had only a 12-cylinder engine: I think I remember seeing at the time that weight problems kept them from using a 16 cylinder, and the small production run of B32-8WH was just a stop-gap because Amtrak was desperate for power, and couldn't wait for the development of the Genesis (Genesis 1 introduced in March 1993), which was able to use a 16 cylinder engine because of a radical re-design (monocoque carbody, fuel tank integral to frame...) that reduced weight relative to what a a conventional design would have had. .... By 1980 GE had a 3000 hp version of the FDL-12 they were selling in freight locomotives, so a "P30CHA" would have been technically possible, but the buyers of passenger locomotives at that stage were probably hopelessly addicted to the EMD product.
QUESTION: Did GE make a proposal to Amtrak (or some commuter agency) for a unit that would have been comparable to the FP40 (i.e. a four-motor passenger diesel derived from the U30B/B30-7 in about the way the FP40 was derived from the GP40)? I don't remember any news items from the time suggesting it, but...
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Possible problem: Sensible people (among whom the current management of various commuter agencies don't seem to be numbered...) like passenger locomotives to be light-weight, light axle-loading, units: they go fast, and track damage from locomotive wheel "hammer blow" gets worse as speed increases. EMD clearly shaved ounces with the original FP40 design: it was lighter than a GP40-2 despite the cowl carbody and extra equipment. (Frame is a bit shorter, and fuel tank MUCH smaller.) GE might have had difficulty matching the weight, since GE's components are heavier (e.g. GE traction motors are heavier than EMD's, and an FDL-16 engine is heavier than a 16-645). When GE finally did build a 4-axle passenger unit of conventional road switcher design (Dash-8 32BWH) it had only a 12-cylinder engine: I think I remember seeing at the time that weight problems kept them from using a 16 cylinder, and the small production run of B32-8WH was just a stop-gap because Amtrak was desperate for power, and couldn't wait for the development of the Genesis (Genesis 1 introduced in March 1993), which was able to use a 16 cylinder engine because of a radical re-design (monocoque carbody, fuel tank integral to frame...) that reduced weight relative to what a a conventional design would have had. .... By 1980 GE had a 3000 hp version of the FDL-12 they were selling in freight locomotives, so a "P30CHA" would have been technically possible, but the buyers of passenger locomotives at that stage were probably hopelessly addicted to the EMD product.
