E25B?

[raised]

Hello,

On Wes Carr's Website I found some information about an electric locomotive called the "E25B". It is used by TXU in Texas to haul coal to the electricityplants.

I'd really would like some more information about the locomotive, like "is it really a GE?" and some drawings or other pictures. But unfortunatly, i couldnt find any of these things on the internet. This because of the fact i built it a couple of years ago 6-wide in lego, and i would like to build it again, but then on a larger scale, and for that purpose i need more detailled pictures and info on the locomotive.

both sites featuring E25B pictures:
http://www.trainweb.org/southwestshorts ... cello.html
http://www.trainweb.org/southwestshorts ... nlake.html

my old lego version of the E25B:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=26393

Thanks in advance,

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout
The Netherlands.

[Allen Hazen]

A truly unusual locomotive!
(i) Yes, it is a genuine GE. According to "The Contemporary Diesel Spotter's Guide" (Kalmbach Press, 1995: not perfect by any means, but a start on locomotive data) 7 were built between May 1976 and February 1979.
(ii) Don't know where to get drawings. The trucks (bogies) are the same as those used on GE four-axle main-line diesels in the 1960s and 1970s, and there are doubtless other common components, but...
(iii) (According to "CDSG") they are 61 feet and two inches longe: one foot MORE than a U25B/U28B/U30B/U23B/U33B/U36B and one foot LESS than a B23-7/B30-7/B36-7. The distance between the center-pins of the trucks, however, is 37 feet 10 inches: 1 foot 8 inches more than on those diesels. So the underframe is a unique, special, design.
(iv) The cab mostclosely resembles those on the E60C passenger electric locomotives that GE built for Amtrak in 1974-1975 and the E60C-2 electrics GE built for Mexico in 1982-1983 (examples of both of these types are used on mine-to-generating-plant railroads in the Southwestern U.S.), but isn't quite identicl to either: windows more like those on the Amtrak units, roof corner profile apparently morelike the Mexican ones, but the vertical front wall not as far in front of the bottom of the windshield slope as on either.
--
Good luck! An interesting and unusual locomotive, the last GE electric to be designed for freight service in the U.S.
(Lego is... amazing. One rail vehicle I have seen modeled in Lego, at about 1/10 scale, was a Melbourne (Australia) tram car, displayed at the Christmas-season toy show of a Melbourne department store.)