Were G.E.'s U-boats and dash-7 units just plain lousy locomotives? While many early EMD's soldier on today, the universal series diesels and dash-7's are all but extinct. I have heard it said that the u-boats were good units when they ran, but G.E.'s dropping of line was a common occurance. Was it a maintenence issue or simply a matter of consolidating on less locomotive types that killed the early G.E.'s?
This is a quote from an article by William M. Carley that appeared in the 9-3-93 edition of The Wall Street Journal: "'The (older) GE locomotives have been so unreliable that only a mother could love them,' says Carl Taylor, vice president of the big CSX railway. 'When we can retire them, we'll be dancing in the streets.' But ask him about the latest GE locomotives, and the answer is different. 'They work,' he says. So well that the railroad is now buying them by the hundreds."
The early GEs to which the article referred were the U series and DASH 7 series as well as, to a lesser extent, the DASH 8 series.
The earlier 'Universal' series or 'U' Boats tended to change with every order(even the same model). This made them less likely to be 're-manufactured' like early EMD GP's have been. Due to all the spare parts issues, they have not been popular in the used market. GE waited until 1977 to bring out the 'Dash 7' line, a full 5 years behind EMD's '-2' line.
The C40-8 was the first GE that could be considered the new 'standard' locomotive after the EMD's SD40-2 set sales records. This unit set the new higher standards that GE is now known for.
With the current slow economy, there is not a lot of loco purchases going on. However, older ex-ATSF & ex-C&NW GE's are being sold/rebuilt for use in Canada(no Tier II restrictions). Maybe we will see a market for older GE's. EMD was just purchased by CAT(through its Progressive Rail unit) and now has deep pockets and may give GE competion as the market improves.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Hot Diodes...Stop...cool...Hot Diodes...stop...cool...Hot Diodes...stop...cool...
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They were kind of a pain for the crews and the mechanics because of the car body design.Dragging your bags onto the locomotive always got caught on something especially the radiator area where you had to walk sideways to clear the intake grills.The intake grills were always dirty and sliding by them usually left your shirt with black streaks all over it.The cab was very tight especially for a 3 man crew.If you were the third person who had to ride in the front passenger seat it was hell.You either had to side sideways or sit forwards with your knees against the door and your feet off the floor.
One of the biggest problems were they were very slow to load up.Some of those locomotives you could move the throttle and hear the engine reeving up and 10 seconds later it is moving. One engineer told me "you can finish a novel by the time this thing starts to load up".Because of that reason they would not be very good for yard switching.
Personally I love those old GE's.They have the best sounds of any diesel locomotive.
Those old GEs are paying my bills .. no complaints here .
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