What do the "dashes" stand for in these locomotives?
Dash7
Dash8
Dash9
???
Thanks
Justin
The road to to success is always under construction. _____________________________________________________________________________ When the going gets tough, the tough use duct tape.
The Dash-7 was the GE line of locomotives that succeeded the Universal Line (U-series) in about 1977, hence the designation. Dash-8 and Dash-9 followed in sequence for upgraded product lines. Perhaps other forum members can help with the particulars.
bubbajustin What do the "dashes" stand for in these locomotives? Dash7 Dash8 Dash9 ??? Thanks Justin
GEs locomotive naming conventions for that period are not that difficult to understand. The Dash 7's were an across the line product improvement on the Universal series (U boats in railfan speak) with many upgrades including the radiators and oil coolers. I have always been under the impression that the -7 was due to the introduction of the series in 1977. Dash 8's were an all new series intoduced in the 1980's and Dash 9's were introduced in the 90's. GE chose to market their first AC units as AC4400CWs (rather than Dash 9-44ACW or whatever) to highlight the revolutionary technology involved......
"I Often Dream of Trains"-From the Album of the Same Name by Robyn Hitchcock
It seems back then that whenever a locomotive line was upgraded it was always dash something, like the EMD -2s. I miss the days when all you had to remember was either U-something or other or something -7. Or the difference between a regular EMD or a -2 model.
Hi all!
So basicilly, the "dash" just is a way of saing that the locomotive is just another variant of another locomotive model? Kind of like how the -7 replaced the U Boat.
bubbajustin Hi all! So basicilly, the "dash" just is a way of saing that the locomotive is just another variant of another locomotive model? Kind of like how the -7 replaced the U Boat.
Yes for EMD. NOT REALLY for GE, although the Dash 7s were upgraded U -boats, the Dash 8s were not, nor were the Dash 9s......Do those NS C40-9Ws you like to watch appear to be modified U-boats? Although the Dash 9s designs evolved from the Dash 8s...
As far as why GE used those names you'd have to ask someone from their marketing department...
The U stood for Universal, and first came out in 1955 as a fairly complete line of export designs that could serve on just about any overseas railroad.
Good point, the U25B was originally intended as an export. The demostrators show this, they had a unique appearance and high hoods.
Think of the Dash-7 as the -2 line from GE what they did was alot of the same stuff that EMD did in the ealry 70's aka easy to replace componets in the control circuts. Redesigned the Dynamic brakes mounts and did a few other things. The Dash-8's were the cutting edge they were the First units to bring computers into the locomotive and use them for Wheelslip power management and alot of other things. The Dash8's could tell when they were in a tunnel and still give 10 mins at full power before they would derate do to overheat to prevent stalling in a tunnel. The Dash9 went even further than the 8's and brought in stuff like Split cooling and other improvements to the engine. This is when GE introduced the AC line also.
carnej1 bubbajustin Hi all! So basicilly, the "dash" just is a way of saing that the locomotive is just another variant of another locomotive model? Kind of like how the -7 replaced the U Boat. Yes for EMD. NOT REALLY for GE, although the Dash 7s were upgraded U -boats, the Dash 8s were not, nor were the Dash 9s......Do those NS C40-9Ws you like to watch appear to be modified U-boats? Although the Dash 9s designs evolved from the Dash 8s... As far as why GE used those names you'd have to ask someone from their marketing department...
Yah youre right. a NS C40-9W's really don't look like modafied U's. Thanks everybody for responding.
trainfan1221 Good point, the U25B was originally intended as an export. The demostrators show this, they had a unique appearance and high hoods.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy Siding trainfan1221 Good point, the U25B was originally intended as an export. The demostrators show this, they had a unique appearance and high hoods. I think you're wrong on that. I think GE built an export model called a UD-18. of 1800 h.p. for export. When they started building U25Bs, I think it was intended for the domestic market from the start.
Yes Murphy Sising. I think you are right. The high hood was built for export.
ML
The dash - 7s' were bulit in the 70s', the dash - 8s' were bulit in the 80s' the dash - 9s' were bulit in the 90s' and the evos are present day locomotives.
Rodney
GDRMCoThe dash is just one of these -. People just day Dash-8 or Dash-9 because they're to lazy to say C40-8W or C44-9W, like like people use 70MAC or 70ACe instead of using the whole SD70MAC or SD70ACe. Same goes for AC44CW and AC60CW instead of AC4400CW or AC6000CW (CW60AC and CW44AC have been used for them too). IIRC the UD18B stood for Universal Domestic 1800hp B-B and was intended to be the US U-Boat then GE had no orders and just used U25B instead of UD25B.
Actually, regarding the Dash 8 line GE initially marketed them as DASH 8-40B/C ,ect.. and most of the railroads purchasing the unitschose to change the naming conventions around to C40-8,B40-8 and so on. By the advent of the widecab era GE started using the B/C prefix and putting the -8 at the end..I guess Dash 8-40CW would have been kind of an awkward model name..
Yah the first time I got introduced to the -9 My grandpa said "Well, wejust calit that for short." "Ita actually stands for -944CW." But reguarding the -8 That is a avery interesting fact.
bubbajustin Murphy Siding trainfan1221 Good point, the U25B was originally intended as an export. The demostrators show this, they had a unique appearance and high hoods. I think you're wrong on that. I think GE built an export model called a UD-18. of 1800 h.p. for export. When they started building U25Bs, I think it was intended for the domestic market from the start. Yes Murphy Siding. I think you are right. The high hood was built for export.
Yes Murphy Siding. I think you are right. The high hood was built for export.
It depends what you mean by "Export"
The original U series were indeed designed for export but these were built to a much smaller profile than US Domestic locomotives in order to be used on gauges as small as 1 metre, where clearances are usually much smaller than on US railroads.
The largest of these was the U18C, with a 12 cylinder FDL engine. If you had standard or larger gauge you could use GE 752 motors rather than the metre gauge GE-761 motors, you could get AAR style four wheel trucks under the same low profile export body as a U18B.
GE were still interested in getting into the domestic market, and built two full size domestic demonstrators which became the UD 18B. These demonstrated in the USA and Mexico and the N de M bought them, and ordered eight more.
So they were exported, but only to a railway that already used US domestic locomotives with clearances and axle loads like those of the USA.
GE also built an A/B/B/A cab unit demonstrator and two more powerful hood unit demonstrators known as XP24-1 with engines rated at 2400 HP. These were effectively the first U25Bs and indeed had high short hoods. But most U25s built had low noses.
But was the XP24-1 the first "Dash" unit?
M636C
when i went to hogger school in the late 90s.. it was explained to us in class that the dash and number for GE locomotives was for the decade in which the units where designed by GE.. the -7 for the 70s..the -8 for the 80s and so on.. as for the dash with EMD power.. the dash shows updated electronics packages in the electrical cabinets...
csx engineer
csxengineer98 when i went to hogger school in the late 90s.. it was explained to us in class that the dash and number for GE locomotives was for the decade in which the units where designed by GE.. the -7 for the 70s..the -8 for the 80s and so on.. as for the dash with EMD power.. the dash shows updated electronics packages in the electrical cabinets... csx engineer
csxengineer98,
Thanks for answering my question guy's, but I must admit this answer was really clear and straight forward. Thank you so much! That also makes so much scince!
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.