Emd Gp60


macjet

macjet

Member
It's a little late to be asking this as my roster includes 5 of these.

But, here it is: Where/when would this locomotive be used? It has the same horsepower as the SD60 so why would a given railroad choose the GP over the SD or vice versa?

I currently have both SD and GP60's. I plan on using the SD's as the long haul heavy draggers. Would the GP60 be a good supplement to the GP38? How well would it work (real life) mixing two locomotives of different horse power ratings?
 
SD units have higher axle loads, and thus, more tractive effort then their smaller lighter GP counterparts. SD60's are good for pulling lots of weight, while GP60's are better at pulling lighter loads faster. As Anthony said, ATSF used their GP60's on priority intermodal trains originally.

Now a days, B-B units are mainly used on local trains and yard duties. Nearly all main line freight is pulled by various C-C units.
 
A lot of the GP60s were designated "Fast 60s" due to gearing. At very high speeds, the 4 traction motors consumed all the available horsepower. At slower speeds, there was plenty of power to juice 6 (and even more) traction motors.

Now, however, you are likely to see GP60s on slow rock duty, switching and locals, even mixed in with 6 axle units.
 
When we were at Pine Jct a while back, we saw a pair of NS GP60s pulling cars out of the EJ&E interchange yard. Must have been nearly 100 cars, about a third of them were loaded coil steel cars. One heavy load.

The locos were straining, for sure, but they got them moving. And, once they cleared the interchange track switch, they mosey'd off to the east....

Kennedy
 
I'll have four of them. I plan on using my 3 38-2's as road and yard switchers and using these 60's as priority freights I guess.
 
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