A Call for New-Era Engines

"It's not a technology leap. It's an incremental move."

Builders of the largest inter-city locomotives for North American freight railroads say they can develop “dual-mode” units to run under either diesel or electric power, but they can’t do it overnight.

Specialists at GE Transportation — one of two major builders of long distance or “line- haul” freight engines on this continent — said it would take several years to integrate technologies that have not yet been paired on freight units, at a cost considerably higher than today’s diesel locomotives.

Still, if freight lines opted to run electric trains in parts of the country and transition their fleets with dual-mode locomotives, it is “clearly within the scope” of the equipment industry, said Joseph Dougherty, marketing leader for GE’s global locomotive operations.

He said because GE, as well as other suppliers, has built dual-mode units in the past for passenger systems, it understands what it would take even though they have not built them for the heavier physical demands of freight operations.

“It’s not a technology leap,” said Dougherty. “It’s an incremental move to a new generation of dual mode.”

Yet it is not as simple as bringing some old plans from when GE last sold dual-mode units to Amtrak and New York’s Metro North passenger lines from 1994 through 2001 up to date.

Instead, “you’re looking at a major redesign,” said product manager Pete Lawson.

That’s partly because only a few of those earlier units approached the more powerful horsepower needs of freight service, and because diesel locomotives have undergone many changes in the past decade to meet tougher emission rules.

BNSF Railway Chairman, President and CEO Matthew K. Rose says he might want such locomotives if he moves BNSF toward electrified track systems. Other railroads are also studying this option.

BNSF is in talks with power line firms to build new lines within the railroad right of way, which would allow the carrier to tap that electricity for train operations. But Rose says he would want engines that could move easily from electrified track into non-electric zones without stopping to change out a train’s locomotives.