Progress Rail’s EMD SD70J-BB — billed as the largest battery electric locomotive in the world — has arrived in Port Hedlund, Australia, for customer Fortescue, the locomotive manufacturer said on Friday.
The 265-ton, 14.5 megawatt-hour locomotive is part of Fortescue’s plan to reach net zero emissions across its operations by 2030. The unit will help power Fortescue’s iron-ore unit trains in Western Australia.
“We’re proud to solve our customers’ toughest challenges with advanced technologies that deliver performance, reliability, and efficiency,” Progress Rail said in a post on X.
The locomotive, which was manufactured in Brazil, embarked from Sete Lagoas on a ship that hauled it around South Africa en route to Western Australia.
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Interesting, especially the BB-BB configuration although if the gauge is adjustable. makes sense, since Brazil uses that config a lot on narrow gauge lines for gauge-loading purposes (as reported in an article by TRAINS some months back) and it may have had to travel on some narrow gauge lines to get to port. Reminds me of the Old UP GTEL’s that when they were first introduced, at least iterations 1 and 2, had two sets of bogies per side on each end…