CSX SD70ACe-T4 No. 8908 shows off its fresh paint.
Erik Landrum
CINCINNATI – Delivery of CSX Transportation’s first SD70ACe-T4 locomotives began last week when nine of the 10-unit order was shipped from Progress Rail’s Muncie, Ind., plant. Norfolk Southern delivered the nine units from Muncie to Cincinnati where they were interchanged to CSX. The order, Nos. 8900-8909, are called ST70AH by the railroad. The final locomotive of the order, CSX No. 8909 is scheduled to be released from Muncie this week.
The new locomotives are headed to Waycross, Ga., for setup. Once released for service, the units are scheduled to be assigned to CSX’s phosphate operation in the Bone Valley region of Florida until early 2020, a source close to the railroad tells Trains News Wire.
They represent the first order for new EMD locomotives CSX has made since its 20-unit SD70ACe acquisition in 2004. Those locomotives have already operated their full career on the railroad and have been removed from the roster.
CSX is the second operator of Progress Rail’s six-axle Tier 4 locomotive, with Union Pacific the launch customer of the new model in early 2017.
Nine of the 10 new SD70ACe-T4 locomotives pause in Cincinnati en route to Waycross, Ga., for setup.
Erik Landrum
Echoing Paul. UP has stored all their SD70T4’s pending: software, DPF, EGR issues. I hope Progress Rail plans on capitalizing on it’s purchase of EMD. At this point it doesn’t look like the purchase was a good investment. EMD’s reluctance to get T4 rolling early is why GE came out ahead again..ET44AC’s have had minimal reliability problems. Of perhaps it’s just time we get away from ICE locomotives. Diesel fuel, increased maintenance cost along with exhaust after treatment are making it prohibitively expensive to operate these units..
Well lately I have noticed that UP has steadily been bringing back their Tier 4 ACe’s back to service as I just recently saw a couple on 1 of the many Virtual Railfan webcams so I believe Progress Rail has a fix.
Yes! Finally the CSX Tier 4 ACe’s have arrived. I knew Progress Rail was Not Dying, I guarantee Progress Rail has made significant improvements on these things over the last few months. I guarantee Progress Rail knows something that we all don’t know.
Wonder if they’re going to store these fuel pigs like UP did.
Hopefully we’ll be seeing a video from Danny Harmon of these new units in the Bone Valley soon! Very cool looking units