News & Reviews News Wire EMD Tier 4 demonstration locomotives assigned to Twin Cities-Twin Ports service NEWSWIRE

EMD Tier 4 demonstration locomotives assigned to Twin Cities-Twin Ports service NEWSWIRE

By Steve Glischinski | October 18, 2016

| Last updated on November 3, 2020

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DEMONSTRATORHSUPNTWatAndoverMN2016October02GlischinskiSteve029
Progress Rail’s EMD Tier 4 emission compliant locomotives Nos. 1603 and 1604 are seen near Andover, Minn., moving south to Minneapolis on a daily train. BNSF Railway is helping to test the units.
Steve Glischinski
MINNEAPOLIS — Progress Rail and BNSF Railway have assigned two SD70ACeP4-T4 demonstrator locomotives to trains linking Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., and Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., also known as the Twin Ports. The pair, EMDX Nos. 1603 and 1604 are assigned to the H-NTWSUP and H-SUPNTW trains. The manifest trains travel 140 miles between Northtown Yard in Minneapolis and Superior, Wis., on BNSF’s ex-Great Northern Hinckley Subdivision. The diesels are putting in 280 miles a day making the round trip.

Typically, the southbound H-SUPNTW departs Superior during early morning hours and arrives at Northtown shortly after sunrise. The locomotives are then serviced and head back to Superior in late afternoon on the H-NTWSUP. The pair began service on the trains in late September. They initially operated with other diesels leading, but since early October have been the exclusive power on the trains.

The two locomotives left Progress Rail’s Muncie, Ind., plant in late July for the Transportation Technology Center near Pueblo, Colo. They tested in Colorado for several weeks before being released to BNSF in late August.

The SD70ACeP4-T4 is EMD’s solution to replacing older direct current locomotives with alternating current traction. They were built with only four traction motors instead of the normal six arranged in a C-C configuration. By using four AC traction motors configured in a B1-1B arrangement, the locomotives’ performance and tractive effort are similar to EMD’s now discontinued SD70M-2 model that used six DC traction motors.

Trains “Locomotive” columnist Chris Guss said after the tests on the Hinckley Subdivision are complete, the engines would be assigned to BNSF’s Northern Transcontinental mainline between Northtown and the Pacific Coast, with Northtown as their home base.

9 thoughts on “EMD Tier 4 demonstration locomotives assigned to Twin Cities-Twin Ports service NEWSWIRE

  1. I agree with Andrew Winegar. This is a completely different model locomotive, so it really do not make any sense to use the sd70ace designation. The SD 100 makes a lot more sense.

  2. That model name is still extremely ungainly. C’mon, Caterpillar/Progress Rail/EMD, go with the SD100 model designation.

  3. Does anyone know if EMD does anything to concentrate the weight on the powered axles when maximum traction is needed.
    GE has a linkage system that reduces the weight on the center unpowered axle and transfers it to the two powered axles.
    How do the two maximum tractive effort numbers compare?

  4. Typo in fourth paragraph, should read “……the normal six (traction motors) arranged in a C-C configuration.”

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