Rebuild program for GEs

[dash7]

thanks for the reply its much appreciated,thanks, derek

[GulfRail]

What about the "Super Sevens?" Do they count?

[Mr.S]

What about the "Super Sevens?" Do they count?

These were mentioned back on page one by TomJohn.

[mbsmike]

Most railroads rebuilt there GEs at least once, that is part of normal service life. EMDs need more frequent rebuilding than GE or Alco from all Ive seen in the biz. BN upgraded several of there C30-7s to 3300hp and 3600hp after first rebuild, AT&SF brought most of the 6300 class B23-7s up to 3000hp, the one SF30B was rebuilt from a U23B with a digital control system, and larger fuel tank and cooling, the unit was a great success it had very high availability, and is still in service now on MNNR. The SF30C were successful as well, being sold to LRC to cancel a GEMS service contract. The U36Cs on ATSF were very well liked and thus why were remanufactured in house, probably the biggest program of its type for US GEs, the main reason GE remanufacturing has not been as popular is simply cost, LRC has a great GE engine shop but not much business
after the 90's, when you take a locomotive apart and look at the components, you clearly see how much more heavy duty the GE equipment is compared to EMD, you could teach children to rebuild EMDs. Thats why there so popular to rebuild at end of life cycle, ease and low cost.

[dash7]

Thats pretty interesting MBSMIKE as I have heard the same thing on other forums as well as from some fitters here in australia, thanks for that, it helps to solidify what I kinda thought .cheers ,Derek

[D.Carleton]

This reminds me of something a FM field tech told me, "EMD's are easy to work on and it's a good thing... you're always working on 'em."

Thanks for your input mbsmike and welcome aboard.

[dash7]

This reminds me of something a FM field tech told me, "EMD's are easy to work on and it's a good thing... you're always working on 'em."

Thanks for your input mbsmike and welcome aboard.

that's funny i love it !

[trainiac]

Most railroads rebuilt there GEs at least once, that is part of normal service life. EMDs need more frequent rebuilding than GE or Alco from all Ive seen in the biz... after the 90's, when you take a locomotive apart and look at the components, you clearly see how much more heavy duty the GE equipment is compared to EMD, you could teach children to rebuild EMDs. Thats why there so popular to rebuild at end of life cycle, ease and low cost.

Do older EMDs really need more frequent rebuilding, or are they are simply kept in service longer? Most of the rebuilt EMDs currently in service are 30, 40, sometimes over 50 years old. I'm thinking of BNSF's many old units rebuilt to GP38-2/GP39 standards, or the rebuilt GP9s still in widespread use on CN and CP. I'd wager that a significantly smaller percentage of contemporary GE U-boat production is still in use; old GEs just seem to be retired more often than rebuilt.

[v8interceptor]

CSX is rebilding some B40-8s to 2000HP. They are not repowering them with the inline GEVO package but are downrating the existing FDL 16 primemovers..

[dash7]

That should be Interesting to see how it pans out.. I wonder if it would be a fuel rack setting or perhaps replacing the turbocharger?

[Super Seis]

How about removing 50% of the PA's ?

SS

[dash7]

How about removing 50% of the PA's ?

SS

do they still run ok? after they actually remove power assemblies?

[MEC407]

Just a friendly request, let's keep the speculation about the alleged "B20-8" confined to the existing thread that is devoted to that subject. It gets confusing when we have two different threads discussing the same subject in parallel. Thanks.

[v8interceptor]

How about removing 50% of the PA's ?

SS

Norfolk Southern actually experimented with that idea when they rebuilt a small number of GP-9s for transfer service. They actually did remove 4 power assemblies on the units 567-16 engines in an attempt to make them operate as 12 cylinders. The program was not a success due to balancing issues with the crankshafts..