GE to repower Russian locomotives with FDL engines

[MEC407]

The tried-and-true FDL engine continues to have a bright future ahead.

From GoErie.com:

...[GE] announced Friday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Yakutia Railways of Russia "to explore the possibility of forming a strategic relationship to modernize diesel electric locomotives."
. . .
GE Transportation would supply so-called locomotive kits, including FDL engines and key drive components built in Grove City and Erie. Plans call for supplying a minimum of 20 engine kits each year for five years.
. . .
Those engines would be adapted to modernize existing Russian locomotives.

Read more at: http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art ... ewssitemap

[Allen Hazen]

Their Russian partner being, according to the article, something called "Yakutia Railways": I wish I knew more about how Russian railways were reorganized after the end of the Soviet Union. Evidently they were split into regional companies.... Yakutia being in Siberia. I suppose the obvious scenario is that the different railway companies have, in addition to track and rolling stock, inherited workshops. (Imagine an "Altoonamsk," at the foot of the grade leading to some Siberian Horseshoe Curve.) And that the management has decided that, in addition to modernizing their own fleet, they can profitably be the shop supplying modernized locomotives to other Russian (and perhaps other ex-Soviet) railways.

GE spokesperson Ricci is quoted as saying there is "some work" involved, but perhaps no major engineering surprises are anticipated: after all, GE provided kits for repowering ex-Soviet diesels with FDL-12 engines some years back, so even if the new project is to be based on a different class of ex-Soviet Railways locomotives, they have had previous experience mating GE innards to Russian-designed frames and trucks.

Thanks again, MEC 407, for finding and posting this link! American rail fan publications are not good at following developments in other countries, and, for a builder like GETS, the international scene is an essential part of the story!

[MEC407]

My pleasure, and I agree about American railfan publications. Fortunately the press in Erie does a pretty good job of covering all the goings-on at GETS.

Long live the FDL!

[Allen Hazen]

The FDL has ALREADY had a long life. A certain other locomotive builder which shall not be named here (grin!) replaced its 567 prime mover with the 645 type for domestic locomotives in 1966: about 27 years after introducing it. GE replaced the FDL, for domestic locomotives, with the GEVO in 2005: 45 years after the U25B, over 50 since GE's first locomotives powered by the FDL's Cooper-Bessemer FVT ancestor!

The development it underwent is astonishing. Those other people's 567 engine went from about 83 hyp/cyl (in, say, an NW-2 Switcher) to about 157 hp/cyl (in the turbocharged engines of the GP35/SD35. The first GE locomotives with C-B "F" series (9"x10.5" cylinders), either the 70-tonner with the six cylinder FWL or the Queensland locomotives with V-12 FVT, had it rated under 100 hp/cyl. This was up to 157 hp/cyl in the U25B, and to over 270 hp/cyl in the C44-9 and AC44 locomotives of the late 1990s/early 2000s.

And, of course, GE has never discontinued FDL production: it has been used since 2005 in many locomotives built for export to countries without U.S. air quality regulations.

Long live the FDL!

[renrut44]

"Long live the FDL!"

Unfortunately it will not!

Little matter of a cast bottom end with a tenancy to stretch

In the third world, and some Latino countries they are still rebuilding 12 cylinder 567C's with 645 piston liner kits, and there is still a strong demand for used 567C crankcases, How many geriatric FDL's are capable of full rebuild?

Unfortunately the FDL burns its candle at both ends

[JayBee]

Their Russian partner being, according to the article, something called "Yakutia Railways": I wish I knew more about how Russian railways were reorganized after the end of the Soviet Union. Evidently they were split into regional companies.... Yakutia being in Siberia. I suppose the obvious scenario is that the different railway companies have, in addition to track and rolling stock, inherited workshops. (Imagine an "Altoonamsk," at the foot of the grade leading to some Siberian Horseshoe Curve.) And that the management has decided that, in addition to modernizing their own fleet, they can profitably be the shop supplying modernized locomotives to other Russian (and perhaps other ex-Soviet) railways.

GE spokesperson Ricci is quoted as saying there is "some work" involved, but perhaps no major engineering surprises are anticipated: after all, GE provided kits for repowering ex-Soviet diesels with FDL-12 engines some years back, so even if the new project is to be based on a different class of ex-Soviet Railways locomotives, they have had previous experience mating GE innards to Russian-designed frames and trucks.

Thanks again, MEC 407, for finding and posting this link! American rail fan publications are not good at following developments in other countries, and, for a builder like GETS, the international scene is an essential part of the story!

The situation in Russia is closer to the situation in Germany, where the vast majority of the trackage is owned by the Russian Federation and is manged by RZD, the State Railway.
Yakutia Railways would be an Open Access operator who is looking to upgrade their locomotive fleet without resorting to newly built locomotives.

[GEVO]

"Long live the FDL!"

Unfortunately it will not!

Little matter of a cast bottom end with a tenancy to stretch

In the third world, and some Latino countries they are still rebuilding 12 cylinder 567C's with 645 piston liner kits, and there is still a strong demand for used 567C crankcases, How many geriatric FDL's are capable of full rebuild?

Unfortunately the FDL burns its candle at both ends

I see geriatric FDL's being rebuilt on a daily basis. It is very rare that they get completely scrapped out.

[MEC407]

Short blurb from Railway Gazette International: http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/sing ... bruar.html