General Electric 70-Ton Diesel Locomotives

General Electric 70-Ton Diesel Locomotives

Never a major component of any Class I railroad roster, the General Electric 70-ton diesel “road switcher” could be found almost everywhere in American railroading, serving lines that weren’t built to accommodate larger locomotives. It was conceived as a ¾-scale model of the EMD SW1 switcher, to be sold with easy financing to shortlines and industries with line-haul operations. Given this opportunity, GE took advantage of advances in diesel engine performance and its already cutting-edge manufacturing techniques to develop a single-engine diesel locomotive with 600 horsepower that weighed thirty tons less than an Alco or Baldwin or EMD switcher rated at the same power. A truly bare-bones machine, the proposed new GE switcher could be sold at a significantly lower base price and be at home on rail too light to support a “standard” 99-ton switcher. Over 270 photos from Canada's Hudson Bay to Chili's Atacama Desert, and from Australia and the Philippines, which the majority of photos taken in the United States.