Norfolk Southern B32-8 No. 535 leads local train P-87 near Asheville, N.C., in February 2015. The venerable Dash 8s are headed for the scrap heap.
Grady McKinley
ROANOKE, Va. — Norfolk Southern’s fleet of GE Dash B32-8 locomotives is headed for the scrap yard. Three NS B32-8 locomotives have already met the scrapper’s torch at Progress Rail’s scrap facility in Roanoke this month. NS Nos. 523, 524, and 544 were among the first to be scrapped, while others in the retired fleet are next up for dismantling.
The four-axle locomotives joined Norfolk Southern’s roster in November 1989 assigned to the 3500-numbering series. Equipped with 3,200 hp, the locomotives spent much of their early years in intermodal, freight, and coal service. In their latter years, the locomotives were most commonly seen in local and work train service.
A total of 49 locomotives were built in its class, of which NS purchased 45 units. In October 2013, the locomotives were renumbered to the 500 series to accommodate for the acquisition of leased SD40-2s. Most B32-8’s were retired by NS in late 2015.
In 2014, NS donated GE B32-8 No. 3563 to the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society in North East, Pa.
NS must be starving for revenue, especially in view of the managements performance in regards to the hostile take over by CP. I wonder how the stockholders are going to react to this. Scrapping rather than selling seems a waste of revenue to me. But I'm not management, so what do I know?
Somebody save them!
Can anyone give insight into why dash-8s in general are being scrapped rather than rebuilt? They aren't that old.
nnnnooooooooooooooooooo
Interesting that they are being scrapped by Progress Rail, owner of the EMD brand and subsidiary of Caterpillar. If in fact EMDs are less expensive to rebuild than GE, I would expect EMD to continue to design their products to be remanufactured as both Progress Rail and Caterpillar are significant remanufacturers.
Not exactly pleasing to the eye either.
Very few railroad have any interest in wornout GE locos. Much more expensive to rebuild than EMD