The first two GP33ECO locomotives, a model previously covered by Trains News Wire, sport a distinctive paint scheme that reflects their environmentally friendly mission and include an outline of the state in green. The locomotives sport flared radiators at the rear, reminiscent of Electro-Motive Division’s SD45 model of the 1960s, but with four-wheel trucks.
Railroad spokesman Robin Chapman tells Trains News Wire there will be 25 units, split with 10 going to Chicago and 15 going to Atlanta. The remaining units will be delivered by the end of the year.
After in-service testing in the Altoona area, the units will be permanently assigned to their respective grant award areas of Chicago and Atlanta. Funding for the locomotive to be used in the Chicago area was awarded by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency, sponsored by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation. Funding for the locomotive to be used in Georgia, on Norfolk Southern’s Atlanta Terminal, was awarded by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division.
Dedication ceremonies are planned for the coming months.
These use to be GP50's and are equipped with remote control and designed to be used with RP-M4C road slugs. Nice looking GPs.
An outline of what state? From the photo, it looks like Georgia.
The article from last May, to which the link leads, said there would be 15 for Chicago and 10 for Atlanta. did something change, or is one article or the other in error?
These locomotive meet Tier 3 standards, using a 12-710ECO prime mover. For more info try altoonaworks.info. That site is full of info on NS rebuilds.
Nifty paint job, but what's special about these? Tier 3? Tier 4? What differentiates these units under the hood. Article reads like a press release and doesn't have any technical information.
This is a new life for the last road locomotives that Southern Railway purchased before the 1982 merger with N&W.
Also, if I remember the deal correctly, NS no longer directly owns these units. An investment firm owns them and leases them back to NS. The money changers arranged the funding for the rebuild. Was NS supposed to say 'no?'
That said, I see flared rads but not the split cooling of NS design for the intake.
I don't believe there is currently any environmental compliance law that says NS has to replace existing locomotives. In other words they could keep operating their existing SWs and GPs. The public purchases the new rebuilds for the public's benefit.
To partially answer Susan's question, there is no requirement for the railroad to remove old high polluting locomotives from service or to modify them, So the public funding, which covers only a part of the rebuild cost, is the "carrot" to encourage NS to do more than a simple in-kind rebuild and install the higher costing but much cleaner versions of the engines and controls to benefit the public much sooner than it would have happened otherwise.
A good question to ask is why do the public's tax dollars go to fund environmental compliance for a company that is regularly booking record profits and is spending excess cash on share buy-backs? Corporate welfare is alive and well.