Dale Gauwitz
CHICAGO – The first SD70ACe-T4 locomotives from a planned Tier 4 lease fleet have emerged from Progress Rail’s Muncie, Ind., plant. EMDX No. 7204 was spotted in the Chicago area recently, painted in a new yellow, white and black scheme with Progress Rail and EMD logos and lettering. This locomotive is moving to Progress Rail’s La Grange facility for emission testing prior to being released for service.
A source close to the builder tells Trains News Wire that Progress Rail is constructing a 27-unit locomotive order for SD70ACe-T4s. These will carry road numbers EMDX Nos. 7201-7227. Two other groups of SD70ACe-T4s that Progress owns will join the new locomotives and be Nos. 7228-7242. The first group are locomotives that were canceled from a large Union Pacific order that were already constructed. These were former UP Nos. 3013, 3091 and 3097-3099 and will become EMDX Nos. 7228-7232. The second group was a canceled Norfolk Southern order for 10 units that were scheduled to become NS Nos. 2000-2009. These will now become EMDX Nos. 7233-7242.
My question is how many EMD Tier 4s were built and actually delivered to the railroads, and are these being used today? I believe that UP ordered about 100, but I heard that many are in storage, not active. I think CSX got a small order of 10. NS cancelled their order. So how many are out there and where are they running?
EMD’s determined attempt to make their two-cycle diesel Tier 4 compliant has turned out to be a very poor decision. GE was ready in 2015; EMD not till almost 2018.
And now with PSR creating a flood of unneeded locos on many roads, any new sales will be hard to find.
Wich railroad has ordered 27 SD70ACe-T4s?
Sorry to hear that the RR traffic decline is resulting in orders being cancelled for the builders.
Not going to make up for the new 250 locomotives sale lost to GE.
I think they look nice too. My only question is, if they are going to replace the blue with yellow, why don’t they use Caterpillar yellow since Caterpillar the parent company? Or is it Caterpillar yellow but the photo is light?
Good to see em back in service and hope company can be. Successful making engines again!!
Not a bad looking locomotive can’t wait to see these on the road keep building these classic EMD Tier 4s Progress Rail.
I know negative comments will probably follow but the negativity will all be gossip to me. I’m sure that if some of these complainers went inside Progress Rail’s Muncie, IN Plant they would have no idea where to start on these complex machines.
I know that these engines are gradually getting better and better.