NS has ordered (52) EMD SD70M-2

[Anonymous]

Per information posted at: http://on-track-on-line.com/ns-news.shtml
Norfolk Southern has ordered 52 SD70M-2 locomotives from EMD

[Anonymous]

Oh boy the UGLY has just gotten UGLY(ER)!

[Anonymous]

Better known as the "Bricks."

I look forward to seeing them in black, perhaps they just might look a *little* better.

[Anonymous]

I hope these are assigned is the southeast. I'd take five C40-9W's over one SD70M-2 any day.

[dwil89]

Well, I welcome them...although I'm an EMD fan anyway...NS has over a thousand Dash 9's already. Its a nice variation to see EMD's finally being ordered in quantity again, though I wi***hey were still making locomotives that looked and sounded like SD40-2's, though the EPA was largely responsible for the noise reduction on the newer power. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[wabash1]

The ns has 2600 GE units and only 3100 EMD units

[Anonymous]

I wonder why NS bought an engine that they never even tested?

[oltmannd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dougal

I wonder why NS bought an engine that they never even tested?

It's not all that much different from the SD70s and 70Ms they already have. There's a good deal of comfort in this. The EPA compliant GE has that new engine in it and NS has only a handful and less than a year's experience with them - much less comfort.

[anb740]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dougal

I hope these are assigned is the southeast. I'd take five C40-9W's over one SD70M-2 any day.

Bring 'em on down so that they can break up the GE monotony! I'm sick of seeing these Trash-9s' on the point of every train that comes through. I'll tell the shop guys down here to give you all the GEez you can handle....and then some! [:D]

[mudchicken]

Not bricks, Amtrak P42's get that moniker...These are Lego's gone bad.[:D][:D][:D]

[ajmiller]

This does seem to be a departure from the norm for NS since most of their new locomotives were GE's. The most complete roster of NS locomotive that I have found is at
http://www.online-isp.com/~rcraig/NS.HTML
last updated in June shows that, not including slugs or switchers, NS has 1921 EMD's and 1539 GE's not including an unknown number of SD38M-2 and B32-8.

The most common locomotive is the C40-9W of which they have 1023. They have 428 GP38-2 and 389 GP40-2. Their most modern EMD's are the SD70, SD70M and SD80MAC which number 80, 43, and 17 units respectively. The SD80's they got from Conrail, and the SD70M's were orignally supposed to be SD80MAC's ordered by Conrail, but NS had them change the order when the break up was decided. The reason you always hear railfans griping about the boring NS trains is because almost all of the mainline freights are lead by the Dash 9's. NS did buy 15 ES40DC's from GE (which look a lot like Dash 9's), and I thought they would continue the GE trend. I wonder what they see in the SD70M-2? The SD70M-2's do look a little funny, but I hope to see them running through Altoona just for the variety.

[Anonymous]

Everyone's always complaining about,I HATE EMD's,I HATE GE's.
The way I look at it is,Who cares what it looks or sounds like,The purpose of the Locomotive is haul the Heavy Tonnage that is required with lots of Horsepower to transport all the goods across this country. A Locomotive is a Locomotive!
It has a life of it's own and once it's life has reached it's own end usefullness it is eather retired or sent off to the scrap yard.
That's it I rest my case.

[Glen Ellyn]

Are the SD70M2's going to have the peach-grey color that some NS train engines have? Or will it be the normal black and white?

[dwil89]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Glen Ellyn

Are the SD70M2's going to have the peach-grey color that some NS train engines have? Or will it be the normal black and white?

The Peach gray color is primer...This is how NS Engines have been delivered over the past several years..in primer....NS chooses to paint their own engines in Juniata and Chattanooga. They'll often be put into road service right from delivery, and then painted later.Those gray units will eventually be painted in NS Black. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[dwil89]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ajmiller
[ The SD80's they got from Conrail, and the SD70M's were orignally supposed to be SD80MAC's ordered by Conrail, but NS had them change the order when the break up was decided.

Actually, to narrow that down a bit further, the last proposed order of SD80MACS was changed to SD70's for NS. Not SD70M's. 24 SD70's were built with Standard Cabs in Conrail Blue paint. in late 1998(The other half of the order was for SD70MACS in Conrail Whiteface scheme to CSX specifications. NS started ordering SD70M's in the year 2000. when 10 were added to the roster. These have the Safety Cab. Then in 2003, NS ordered another 33 SD70M's with the flared radiators and slightly revised nose. Another 25 were ordered and built in late 2004 to the same specifications. This all is subsequent to NS's original SD70's ordered in the early 1990's in Standard Cab configuration, which number 56 units. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[dwil89]

Here is a breakdown of NS owned SD70's and SD70M's. First order was for 56 Standard Cab SD70's built in 1993 and 94. These are numbered 2501-2556. 2nd order was for 24 units, assembled at the Juniata Shops between June and November 1998 and originally painted Conrail Blue. NS numbered 2557-2580. Order 3 was for 10 SD70M's with Safety cabs built at Juniata between October and December 2000 and numbered 2581-2590. 4th order was for 33 SD70M's with flared radiators, built in 2003 and numbered from 2591-2623. This was followed in late 2004 by order 5 for 25 additional SD70M's with Flared radiators numbered from 2624-2648. The SD70M-2's will likely follow the 2648 in numbering sequence. A footnote on the 2501-2556 is that units from this batch have begun having Cab-signals installed,(as these were built several years prior to the Conrail takeover), so they can lead in Cab-signalled territory, as the units from 2557 and later were built with.to begin with, Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown

[dwil89]

QUOTE: Originally posted by wabash1

The ns has 2600 GE units and only 3100 EMD units

I believe that NS's total Locomotive Roster is somewhere over 3,000. Not close to 6,000. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown