Railroaders' Nostalgia > The GE U30C's

If it wasn't low water, it was low oil or both. Then there was "Hot Engine" all the time when it wasn't hot!
Then the governor, then mysterious things electrically.
The warning instrumentation was bad from the beginning.
I think the U33C's did a bit better.
Their 4 axle engine were more reliable than the 6-axle jobs.

Just my 2 cents!
THe U28*B's had wonderful stack music: Sounded just like " California Drop Forge" just outside of LAUPT

Listen to Juice Newton sing with the Hogger!

Didn't like them. Slow to load. As I recall, they did reverse quickly. That was about it.

On top of the above, they didn't have any "feel". I used to say that running a train with a GE in the lead was like trying to play the piano with gloves on. It can be done, just not real well.

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/23 19:38 by RetiredHogger.

We had some U-33-C's on the Santa Fe. I was on a westbound coming into Peabody, Ks. The CRI&P crossing had a 30 mph slow order on it, and it was pretty rough, I had released the brakes and was notching it up, getting ready for the hill, and noticed some railfans taking pictures of us going over the crossing. Just as we rattled over it, our headlight bulb fell out of the holder and dropped down to the nose, dangling by the wires, wonder if anybody got a shot of that.

Posted from Android

They all smelled like a portable out house. I retired in 2004. From what I uderstand, GE has really improved over the last 20 years.

ApproachCircuit Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If it wasn't low water, it was low oil or both.
> Then there was "Hot Engine" all the time when it
> wasn't hot!
> Then the governor, then mysterious things
> electrically.

Same with the B30-7AB. That's why we on BN called the slugs (the counterfeit coin).

TAW

Foamer speaking.  These are interesting comments I hadn't heard before.  Interesting in that BN ran a ton of them on coal trains, and even bouoght some used Santa Fe's just before the merger.  Thanks for an interesting post.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/23 18:44 by ntharalson.

ntharalson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Foamer speaking.  These are interesting comments
> I hadn't heard before.  Interesting in that BN
> ran a ton of them on coal trains, and even bouoght
> some used Santa Fe's just before the merger. 
> Thanks for an interesting post.
>
> Nick Tharalson,
> Marion, IA

The older GE's I used on CSX (while we still had some) did the job...but only just...and I was told they were always that way. You learned your way areound the electrical room as that's where you had to go to reset the myriad things that would ring off....and you couldn't be bashful about sticking your fingers in those relays.....ther reset buttons were right there! GSDHR LOPR...you also learned a language of acronyms...yes...the later model and much more highly evolved. The only significant difference between U boats and dash 7's was that the dash 7's were a tad more reliable. Just a tad. Strangely although horibbly slow loading...once rolling along the did alright.  you would never break a knuckle with a consist of boats and/or dash 7's...they just never would draw that hard all at once. 

Seems to me that it took until the Dash 9's before GE had a "good" engine.

Lackluster performance and reliability aside, as a big guy I always hated the U and C series GEs because of their narrow walkways, tiny doors, and high, nearly vertical steps. I had more torn shirts that got hung up on protruding bolts and such from traversing the walkways, not to mention an occasionally bruised forehead from not ducking enough when entering or exiting the cab.

Today's GEs are more spacious for sure, but still piles of garbage IMHO. They are okay when new but wear out quickly. From my experience, a two-decade-old modern EMD is usually in better shape, pulls better, and has a nicer ride than a similar age modern GE.

Also trying to keep the doors closed along the long hood. Lube oil covering the walkways and fuel tank. FRA inspectors loved shopping them!

Steve

Years back, at the museum in Sacto, I was yakking with an engineer at a display. The take-away quote - "With a GE on the point and GMs behind, you can feel the GMs saying 'C'mon, get out of my way' ".
...Lorenzo