International Railroad Discussion > China orders 300 locomotives from GE

Just announced today that China has finalized a 300 unit 6000hp locomotive order from GE. I know from others that the competing order that China has from EMD isn't gonna look like SD90MAC's but will these locomotives coming from GE look like AC6000CW's? When China ordered C36-7's from GE a decade or two ago, they looked like their American prototypes. Any thoughts?

All of these will likely be dual-ended (double-cab) lightweight small-fuel tank and smaller clearance limit carbodies, like the Chinese C36-7s were with respect to domestic C36-7s.

Have heard that the Chinese want to operate mainline freight trains with three units for 18,000 HP for speed, which buys throughput (read "line capacity"). Frequent refueling is not an issue for them, unlike the North American goal of operating long distances before refueling.

Interesting also that GE will use this order to introduce the 16-cylinder version of the Evolution engine (as compared to the 12-cylinder EVOs now in service on North American ES44ACs and ES44DCs).

Six hundred 6000 HP road AC locomotives ... just another sign of how the Chinese economy is rapidly heading toward the top of the list globally. China is currently the largest importer of scrap iron and steel from the western world (to feed a steel industry which is going all-out for domestic Chinese construction). China is also currently the world's largest consumer of cement and concrete. And the project for Chinese oil consumption is similarly trending up and up ...

greendot Wrote:
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> All of these will likely be dual-ended
> (double-cab) lightweight small-fuel tank and
> smaller clearance limit carbodies, like the
> Chinese C36-7s were with respect to domestic
> C36-7s.

Double-cab on the Chinese C36-7's? Are you sure?

greendot Wrote:
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Frequent refueling is not an
> issue for them, unlike the North American goal of
> operating long distances before refueling.
>

Probably because AFAIK Chinese railways follow the European and Russian practice of assigning locomotives to specific "depots", and operating them within a geographically limited area.

Did not mean to state (or imply) that the Chinese C36-7s were dual-cab, they weren't.

Go to the Eastern railroad discussion.

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It will be nice to see if any North American railroads go for the 16 cylinder 6000hp GEVO. I wonder what EMD will do to compete with this.

I think we already know the answer to your question ...

EMD has the 6000 HP 16-cylinder "H" engine, which has for the past several years quietly settled into being a marine-only engine, but now with the sale to China comes back into (at least international) railroad service.

GE gave up several years ago on the 6000 HP 16-cylinder "HDL" engine, and is only providing parts and service to keep the C60ACs running on UP, CSXT and BHP Billiton iron ore in western Australia. The 16-cylinder "Evolution" engine announced for the GE 300 unit China order takes the place of the 16-cylinder HDL engine.

There were teething problems with both the GE HDL and EMD H 6000 HP diesel engines. But in my opinion, what really crippled the chances for 6000 HP locomotives to find a home on North American rails. What really crippled the chances of the 6000 HP locomotives to succeed, in my opinion, was that they were designed to the same reliability levels as the 3000-4000 HP units they were supposed to replace on a 2-for-3 basis (i.e., SD40-2s, SD60s and Dash 8s). The problem was, when one of two 6000 HP units coughed enroute, the train was frequently lost, unable to make grades, or so terribly behind schedule. With one of three units failing, you might still make it over the ruling grades, and schedule hits weren't as bad since you only lost 33% of your power instead of 50%.

I think the roads have had enough experience with horsepower above today's 4300-4400 level that they won't be beating any well worn path to the builders for 6000 HP units for a long time.