GE AC6000CW Donated!
Congratulations! You’ve found the AC6000CW, the largest and most powerful diesel-electric locomotive on the GE horsepower comparison chart, and there’s some exciting news about it! This giant is the first and only model to use the 6,000-hp 7HDL-16, which is GE’s first new engine design since the adoption of the successful 7FDL series from Cooper-Bessemer. It should be noted that some locomotives (e.g. steam, turbine, or straight-electric) are more powerful than the AC6000. For example, GE built a fleet of 8,500-hp “Big Blow” gas turbines for the Union Pacific during the late 1950’s and early 60’s. If you recall from the EMD comparison chart, the UP’s double-engined DDA40X has 600 horses more than the single-engined SD90MAC-H. On GE’s side, however, the AC6000 has only one engine but is interestingly more powerful than the twin-engined U50 and U50C locomotives, which were also built for the UP.
One thing I do like is that CSX showed off one of its first three new CW60AC’s (#602) at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum on September 13, 1996. I must have been one month old at that time! For that reason, the locomotive was named “The Spirit of Maryland” as seen on both sides of the cab. And now, the AC6000CW is becoming a museum exhibit for the first time! On St. Patrick’s Day of this year, a demonstrator unit #6002 has been received by the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, Pennsylvania, about 11 miles away from GE’s Erie locomotive factory. This locomotive originally belonged to the Union Pacific as #7511 but soon became one of the builder’s test units for engineering purposes. As a side note, the UP acquired a replacement unit with the same number.
To my knowledge, GE #6002 still has the 7HDL diesel engine but in recent years, many of the AC6000’s were converted with either the more reliable 7FDL or even the new Evolution Series GEVO engine with 16 cylinders. If it wasn’t for the HDL, would the GEVO still exist? The latter probably inherited some DNA from the former because both designs can produce up to 6,000 hp as V16’s. Remember, Electro-Motive Diesel used its older 265H as the foundation of its new 1010J engine to meet the Tier 4 emissions standards. One odd thing about #6002 is that it rides on two different truck designs: High-Adhesion and Steerable. Union Pacific preferred the former while CSX chose the latter for their AC6000’s. Technically, three of the CSX pre-production units (600-602) were initially built with Hi-Ad trucks but were later modified with the steerable ones, except for 602.
If the AC6000CW is your favorite, then you should be very lucky that this Erie-built GE product is saved. Special thanks to Stephan Koenig for spreading the news, and extra special thanks to Wabtec (formerly GE Transportation) for considering the historical significance of the 6,000-hp race in the United States. Long live the king of General Electric diesel locomotives!
