International Railroad Discussion > EMD on BB trucks

Since 2003 Brazil imported more than 700 second hand locomotives from North America market. Many of them were converted to narrow gauge using BB trucks developed by GE to use on the Dash-8 and 9´s since 1990´s. In recent years, Progress Rail of Brazil converted some SD40-2 to narrow gauge and updated the units to Dash-3. They became the BB40-3 and BB40T-3. Other units were converted by Vale mining to fca railroad using the same trucks and the group was divided into BB40-2 and BB40T-2, depending if they were originally an SD40-2 or SD40T-2.

Picture 1: VLI BB40-3 8147 leading special train S700 with three DDM45´s to the scrap yard in EMD plant, on June 4th, 2015;
Picture 2: fca BB40T-3 8108 in a consit with other two BB40-3 leading an empty grain train at Araguari yard, on August 17, 2014;
Picture 3: fca BB40-2 4818 (former CP 5635) coupled to DDM45 824 in the special train S700 that took the DDM´s to the scrap yard at EMD plant, on June 1st, 2015. Not the huge porch made to accept the BB trucks.
 

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,

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Awsome pics Pedro.Keep em coming.That is quite a veranda on the 4818.Room for a table and chairs.
Regards,DK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/15 18:46 by DKay.

To the raifans that would like to see the BB40´s in acion, I recommend the locations along the grain corridor in Minas Gerais state. Here are some pics taken in Azurita, a small town near Belo Horizonte, the state capital, on September 8, 2012:

Picture 1: BB40-2 4819, BB40-3 8163, 8167 and BB40T-3 8108 leading an empty grain; 
Picture 2: the same units seen in the opposite direction;
Picture 3: BB40-3 8129 and BB40-2 4812 working as DPU in a loaded grain.
 

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/15 19:08 by pedrop.

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That is a huge porch for sure.  You could put some chairs and a table out there and have a picnic.

 WHY why why scrap these useful body's   when a SD,80.or a 90 can make good use off them?
mmmmmm from snoopy51

In 2009 I did a railfaning trip with a couple of railfans from US along the grain corridor and we could find some former North America locomotives still using the old painting. Here are some pics of grain train J311 in Tapiraí, MG on August 5. We call it Tricotrol since it is divided into three sections: 

Pic 1: fca BB40T-2  4826 (ex SP 8265) and BB40-2 4813 (ex UP 3335) leading the first section;
Pic 2:  fca BB40T-2 4822 (ex DRGW 5360)  and EFVM BB36-7 701 (ex Conrail 5000) in the second section;
Pic 3: fca BB40-2 4801 (ex-CP 5653) and 4804 (ex CP 5861) in the third section;
 

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/15 19:04 by pedrop.

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 I would say that only Brazil and Colombia see the longest and heavist trains in South America. Most of the other countries do not have the heavy traffic or run more frequent trains as with FCAB  meter gauge in Chile. In addition only the Meter Gauge lines or 3ft gauge Colombia line get the long heavy tonnage trains. Most of the wide gauge lines have light traffic patterns. However Brazil's wide gauge handle a lot of heavy haul tonnage verses the 5ft 6in gauge in Argentina and Chile. 

I am in Peru part time and they are proposing a transandean railroad from Brazil to Bolivia and eventually ending in Peru. This proposal comes up every few years. The Chinese are usually behind the idea. We are talking Billions of US dollars to drill under and cross the Andes from the Amazon basin into the Andes. Peru has mostly standard gauge lines that are not connected to international connections. 

Dale Brown
wings and rails on facebook. 

Yes, an agreement was signed among Brazil and China last week to build this railroad. At least the part inside Brazil they will built because it is very interesting to the two contries.

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Very interesting photos.

KG

The big BB40´s  here in town

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUv2euFPwJA

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

What gauge is the proposed Transandean Railroad.

Dale Brown

Hi Dale,
A law from 1990's says that all NEW railroad must be broad gauge.


DWBrown Wrote:
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> What gauge is the proposed Transandean Railroad.
>
> Dale Brown

Posted from iPhone

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

IN the second photograph, there is dual gauge trackage observed.
The narrow-gauge extended length double truck is utilized on which track gauge
and as there are two gauges, what utilizes the "other" track gauge?
And does that track gauge also receive modified trucks?

Hi Thumper,

I think you said in the THIRD photo, because it is the only one where we see dual gauge.
The narrow gauge system belongs to fca. Nowadays fca is operated by a Logistic company called VLI (VL!) that is a logistic division of Vale mining. That´s why in my area we see fca, VLI and Vale trains. The broad gauge belongs to MRS. MRS do not have modified trucks. They just spread them out a bit when reveived the second hand units from US. 

In the first picture enclose you can see a car used to switching operations on dual gauge yards. Note that one truck is meter gauge and the other is broad. The reason is that the couples need to be centered into each gauge. So, for a meter gauge locomotive to switch a broad gauge train it is necessary to use this kind of car. The opposed also works when a broad gauge locomotive needs to switch a narrow gauge train. We call them Maromba. But there is also a kinf of car that have the two trucks on broad gauge, but one of the couplers are centered for narrow gauge. this kinf of car is called  Madrinha. fca has a system in São Paulo state that is dual gauge too, but  they have only broad gauge locomotives there and all cars are narrow gauge. So, they use a Madrinha car between the locomotives and the freight cars. . It is seen in the second picture. In this specific car, we can see two couplers that allow it to use in any kind of car used here, broad or narow gauge. Also note that the broad gauge coupler  is higher than the narrow gauge one.

Pedro

Thumper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> IN the second photograph, there is dual gauge
> trackage observed.
> The narrow-gauge extended length double truck is
> utilized on which track gauge
> and as there are two gauges, what utilizes the
> "other" track gauge?
> And does that track gauge also receive modified
> trucks?

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/15 09:19 by pedrop.

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The rebuilding process been done at Tubarao shops (Vale mining shops in Vitoria, ES) in 2006. Pictures by friends that worked to Vale at that time.
 

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

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pedrop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To the raifans that would like to see the BB40´s
> in acion, I recommend the locations along the
> grain corridor in Minas Gerais state. Here are
> some pics taken in Azurita, a small town near Belo
> Horizonte, the state capital, on September 8,
> 2012:

Pedro - where does the grain corridor start and end?

86235 Wrote:
> Pedro - where does the grain corridor start and
> end?

The grain corridor has two legs. It started in a city called Araguari. The first leg links Araguari to Eldorado yard (EEL) in Contagem, near Belo Horizonte  (BH). From EEL the grain is sent to Tubarao port by Vale mining.  The second leg links Araguari to Santos, SP. This is a direct connection the port. I´ve heard that in two years VLI will get the rights to take the cargo from EEL to Tubarão without to transfer the train to Vale mining.

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Rebuilding a SD45-2 in a BB45-2. 886 was former ATSF 5641, later NREX 6459. It arrived in Brazil in BNSF colors. The same unit in cover of Latin Tracks in 2008

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

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pedrop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The grain corridor has two legs. It started in a
> city called Araguari. The first leg links Araguari
> to Eldorado yard (EEL) in Contagem, near Belo
> Horizonte  (BH). From EEL the grain is sent to
> Tubarao port by Vale mining.  The second leg
> links Araguari to Santos, SP. This is a direct
> connection the port. I´ve heard that in two years
> VLI will get the rights to take the cargo from EEL
> to Tubarão without to transfer the train to Vale
> mining.

Many thanks.