Eastern Railroad Discussion > Spotted one new partial NS unit on the GEXR

Expected ten to twelve units...just caught the one today...bjd.

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I take it that that's the first of NS's SD70M-2 Tier II locomotives. It will be neat to see 'em when they're fully assembled and painted.

I also notice that the unit has radial trucks. I wonder if FEC's SD70M-2's will be built as add ons to this order and have radial trucks?

That's even worse than their primer gray units! How does the engineer see anything with that body style?


;-)

How do you explain a half-built unit in Stratford ?

Somebody forget to spray paint a 2700 series number on this one?

Doug0308 Wrote:
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> IF you were the CMO of BNSF would that picture
> make you want to buy a whole bunch of em?
>
> Really......


Frankly, if I were the CMO why would I care? The completed unit is what matters. It looks like the unit needs it's cab, carbody, paint and testing. All stuff that any number of shops can handle. If it speeds up delivery and doesn't impact the product, why would this make a difference? The units completed from kits at Super Steel and Altoona have been fine.

What's on the flatcar?

Ted in Davis

Doug0308 Wrote:
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> NYSWSD70M Wrote:
>
> > Frankly, if I were the CMO why would I care?
>
> Ever heard of Mexi-MACS?
>
> > The
> > completed unit is what matters. It looks
> like the
> > unit needs it's cab, carbody, paint and
> testing.
> > All stuff that any number of shops can
> handle.
>
> So why buy from EMD?
>
> > If
> > it speeds up delivery
>
> How does it do that?
>
> >and doesn't impact the
> > product,
>
> How do we know that?
>
> why would this make a difference? The
> > units completed from kits at Super Steel and
> > Altoona have been fine.
>
>
>
>
>
>
The Mexi-macs were far less assembled than this unit. Most of the major work is complete on this unit. The electrical cabinet is installed and the wiring is largely complete. Frankly, dropping the carbody onto the unit is fairly simple.

Why buy from EMD if they farm out assembly? Even if the unit is assembled from a kit, it is still built from parts supplier from EMD that were engineered and tested by EMD. Assembly is very different than building the complete product. In any even, it is always done with EMD supervision.

As for speeding up delivery, may not cut down the total number of days it takes per unit, but it does free up shop space for the next unit. This gives EMD the ability to increase the through put of the shop as they get started on the next unit more quickly.

Altoona has assembled SD60I's SD70's, and SD70MAC's. Super Steel has assembled SD70MAC's, SD90MAC's and SD70M's. None of these units have been any more problematic than the London built units.

The Mexican sourced SD70MAC's did have some issues as delivered. These were worked out over time. By and large, most of these issues could be considered learning curve issues. The UP SD70M's that were built in Mexico have been largely trouble free. BNSF's issues with EMD have far more to do with the loss of GM's auto traffic than they do with the Mexican SD70MAC's.

So is that DCC ready?

gobbl3gook Wrote:
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> What's on the flatcar?
>
> Ted in Davis

Those are frames of some kind of vehicle, heading to the assembly plant.

Brandon Smith

FECSD40-2 Wrote:
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> I also notice that the unit has radial trucks. I
> wonder if FEC's SD70M-2's will be built as add ons
> to this order and have radial trucks?


Are you sure it's a radial truck? The standard truck for the SD70ACe/M-2 is a bolsterless high adhesion truck that looks very similar to the previous HTCR II (radial trucks now cost extra)

Yep, these have radial trucks Robbman. The linkages between the axles can be seen as well as the rectangular pieces of metal connecting to the truck sideframes. These features are not present on the SD70M-2 demonstrators or the CSX SD70ACE's, but are present on every other SD70ACE or SD70M-2 built so far. The NS units have trucks identical to their SD70M locomotives.

The units are being completed at the VMV Paducah Shops in Kentucky. Also, as a reply to the previous post about the unit #. NS SD70M's stop at 2648. The NS SD70M-2's run from 2649 to 2700.

FECSD40-2 Wrote:
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> Yep, these have radial trucks Robbman. The
> linkages between the axles can be seen as well as
> the rectangular pieces of metal connecting to the
> truck sideframes. These features are not present
> on the SD70M-2 demonstrators or the CSX SD70ACE's,
> but are present on every other SD70ACE or SD70M-2
> built so far. The NS units have trucks identical
> to their SD70M locomotives.


Cool. Was curious about them becuase they are a cost option, and this is NS after all.

That's all they could afford this month.

Jim
Hatboro, PA