GP40s with new three axel trucks...

[adrianspeeder]

I think they look cool actually...

Adrianspeeder

[martin.knoepfel]

QUOTE: Funniest thing to see a big old GE -9 riding around on four trucks with 8 axles!

Even more funny is that they have narrow gauge track, and dual gauge tracks also, and some of these things get narrow gauge trucks to boot....
they look like they should just fall over the first curve they hit...

great opportunity for modellers. In the HO-gauge, the difference between standard gauge and the Brazilian broad-gauge is nearly invisible.

I guess, it is a minor modification to transform a B'B'-engine to C'C' or
to A1A' A1A'. But there must be some work on the frame, if you replace two trucks with four two-axle-trucks. And on meter-gauge, there is less space for the traction-motors

[M636C]

Having seen the photos (thanks Ed!) it is interesting to see the trucks. These are the MLW/Dofasco design used on most MLW six axle locomotives including exports since the mid 1960s. Possibly NREC own the rights to these trucks along with some other Alco designs. An advantage of this design was that it had a shorter wheelbase than most US domestic trucks, allowing it to fit with less modification. The trucks are bolsterless, the frame being supported on four rubber/metal "sandwich" springs (seen very clearly in Ed's excellent photos). This overcomes the problem I mentioned in the Argentine conversion, of the bolster preventing intallation of a third motor. It does mean that the locomotive controls and wiring would have to be modified to suit the six motors.
I note that the trucks appear to be new with a casting mark of "A" in a circle, and what I take to be an order number with an 04 prefix cast below. Are Adirondack still in business, or is there another casting company out there with "A" as its mark. These are big castings by present standards, and only a few companies could make them.
The reason the GE Dash8s and Dash 9s have four motors on metre gauge is no so much for loading (the track is quite heavy) but that four metre gauge motors are needed for the high power. Brazil still operates DDM45s, metre gauge SD45s with four axle trucks, for that reason. GE preferred the option of four two axle trucks, just as they did in the 1960s with the U50!

Peter