Railroad Trains for the Soul - GE XR Series
In the 1970’s, General Electric was developing a more advanced diesel locomotive product line that would supplant the Universal Series while competing with the Electro-Motive Dash-2 line. By this decade, solid-state modular electronics became applicable for the railroad industry. GE initially marketed its new models as XR (“eXtra Reliability”). Only two U-boat locomotives were known to have the XR lettering to promote the new series: St. Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) Railway number 846 (a U30B) and Louisville & Nashville Railroad No. 1499 (a U30C). According to the September 1999 issue of Trains Magazine, No. 846 was also the 2500th GE U-boat for the United States. A few sources refer to these units as U30BXR and U30CXR; however, if GE kept the XR name, it could have dropped the letter U from a former model and replaced it with the two new letters. Thus, there probably would have been such types as XR30B and XR30C, a more streamlined nomenclature.
Perhaps the most underappreciated GE locomotive product line is the Dash-7 series. While some railroaders disliked these particular diesels, the Dash-7 was a fairly successful transition between the revolutionary U-boats and the microprocessor-controlled DASH 8’s. Corporate documents showed that the Universal line’s successor was named “New Series” and later “Series-7” but many railroaders call these locomotives Dash-7’s, due to the “-7” suffix in a model name (e.g., B30-7). The number represented 1977 as the official introduction year, although the very first locomotives of this product line were actually built in 1976. Since the Dash-7 debuted in the 70’s, the DASH 8 name would refer to the 80’s, the next decade it was introduced. And of course, the DASH 9 Series was designed in the 90’s. Nothing simpler than that.
Initially, early DASH 8 models such as the B32-8 and C39-8 reused the same designation system as its predecessors. Later models from that series utilized a different nomenclature starting with the full word “DASH” as in DASH 8-40C. The same thing is true for the DASH 9 Series (e.g., DASH 9-44CW). However, it should be noted that a lot of railroads prefer the Dash-7 naming style for the more recent locomotives like C40-8 instead of DASH 8-40C. Whether it’s called DASH 9-44CW or C44-9W, the syntax doesn’t matter and it’s still the same model. To each their own. With everything explained, what if the GE Dash-7 Series never happened? And what if the XR Series became a true reality? There’s no clear answer to either question but the company would probably not have marketed its subsequent locomotives as a DASH 8 or 9. While you might have been a big fan of either type or the powerful AC-motored diesels, you should understand that despite its failures, the Series-7 line helped GE engineer more reliable products that would eventually make itself the number one locomotive builder of today.
SLSF 846 photo source:
