CSX AC6000. Awesome looking.

Sorry about the double picture. I went too fast. As usual......LOL

 

 

Pete

Great photo, thanks for sharing.  I love the yellow letters with the blue outline.  

A great livery that pays tribute to amonst others the Chessie lineage. The big blue blob paint scheme does nothing for me.

 

Paul

Love the picture, Pete.  I'm a big CSX fan, and really like that paint scheme.  Thanks for posting.  

 

- Mike

Can't you simply "edit" you post and delete one?

Yes. it is commonly referred to as laziness. I was real tired and did not feel like dealing with even a few keys strokes. LOL

 

Glad everyone likes the picture. It is not mine, but a posted net picture. Therefore I cannot take credit for the actually photography, but I thought it was a cool picture and worth posting up in here.

 

The AC6000 rocks!!!!

 

 

Pete

Saw this post and thought maybe ya'all might like to see these, I shot at an open

house back in 2001 at the Cumberland CSX Locomotive shops. They no longer allow

open house any more.

 

 

 

 

 

This was nearly new 627. I was told that the yellow CSX outline in blue, rather than the solid blue on the other "bright future" scheme locos, was done not by CSX choosing but GE wanted to note the AC6000's with something a little special, and

it was done at no extra cost to CSX

Ed

Yes, Pete ... they are sharp looking. The sight of these engines .... Lionel's first release of AC6000's running under Legacy ... is what brought me back into the O hobby.

 

Yes, Ed .... the blue-outlined "CSX" was unique to the 60's

 

Great photos, all.

Thank you Ed. Those are really nice pictures and highlight the awesome look of these really spectacular locomotives. I love all types of trains/locomotives, but the AC6000 in any livery is by far my most favorite of all locomotives. Add to that, I like GE products allot as well. Going back to the U25's/U-Boats. Although not as beautiful or robust as a

AC6000, they were top of the line back in the day and a good competitor for the GM type locomotives.

 

CSX livery is awesome looking. Perhaps one of the most colorful with all that blue gray and yellow.

 

Again thanks for the pictures.

 

Pete

I agree! Awesome paint scheme on the CSX AC6000s. My personal favorite actually! I have 5 of these in MTH PS2 powered (although 1 is the Diversity). I pull over 70 MTH CSX coalporter hoppers with them. I'll post a little video in here next time I do it!

CSX ordered a multi year quantity of AC4400's and AC6000's at the same time. And GE actually built and painted the first AC4400 with the road number #9102. (The first engine was the 9101-but it had not been painted yet.) During our meeting with CSX in Erie, they decided to begin an entirely new numbering system with AC locomotives, their first AC's, and they changed the road numbers to begin with road number 1 for the AC4400's. (CSX begins each class series with a road number ending in a "one" vs a "Zero" so qty in that class is easily determined.) Further, they wanted a single "lightning bolt" under the road number on the cab sides. And we changed our Engineering Instructions to comply.

For the AC6000's, they wanted something different, including the 600 number series, two lightning bolts on each side of the number, and a change in their herald color to yellow outlined in blue for AC6000's only. This was their request and we complied. This yellow "CSX" was very useful to me in chasing #601 across the Alleghenies on a stack train from Chicago with a hired helicopter and pilot....I chose to NOT ride the helicopter after an "unpleasant experience" the previous day, so had to tell the pilot by primitive cell phone (with spotty reception in the mountains out of Cumberland) how to identify that unit and train for a movie, which I still have. the yellow color was the only identifying mark.....

I have a real soft spot for the CSX blue-yellow-grey color scheme, and for AC4400's and AC6000's. I was under, around, over, and in every single one of both classes as a result of my joint inspection with various CSX inspection personnel. They were, and they ARE, great engines, although the AC4400's were more successful.

One of my favorite models!

 

Alan

5432, I will say I was told by Mr Felton that GE had the idea for the blue outlined

CSX on the 6000's, but you are no doubt correct about that.

Here are a few more photos, a couple of one of the "Diversity" units, and two of the

"Spirit" locomotives, including the AC44 number one. I saw her after this photo, near Grafton, and her number boards were gone, I assumed that some light fingered jerk

made off with them. The next time I saw her, she had a set of cheesy replacements

installed.

Ed

 

 

O SCALE MODEL OF AC6000

 

 

I want to correct that the engine that was chased by helicopter across the Alleghenies was 602, not 601. The engine was delivered to the old B&O roundhouse in Baltimore for a ceremony that included a senator, and GE and CSX execs. What made it a challenge was that the CSX service area east of Cumberland was inundated with "a 100 year flood", and the RR was essentially closed for three days. I recall that from the air that the old B&O roundhouse at Martinsburg was surrounded by about 6 feet of water. When 602 was assigned as a single unit on a train for the video, CSX was required to use a track speeder that ran several blocks ahead of the train to confirm that the roadbed was not underwater. We wanted photo and video coverage at Harpers Ferry but the train beat us there by three minutes.

The official CSX photo, a dark one by John Corns, of #602 with the Tom Thumb was posed outside the day before the ceremony.

My "bad luck" seemed to follow this assignment. I also was involved in the display of #601 at Willard when Pete Carpenter and John Snow made the joint announcement that there would be additional investment by the RR at the Willard yard. Carpenter and Snow were photographed standing in front of 601 when the picture was taken for the local paper and the wire services. I closed the nose door on the 601 just in time, or I would have been (more?) famous. The night before the ceremony, a storm with high winds came through the area and blew down our reception tent......

And so it goes.....

It was great to see more photos of #1 with steerable trucks. As info, the "early" AC4400's, R/Nos 1 thru 173, were built with Hi-Ad trucks. We had the steerable design ready for the AC6000's and CSX decided they wanted steerables on the next release of AC4400's as well. To differentiate them, CSX numbered the AC4400's with steerables starting with road number 201. Subsequently, R/Nos 1 and 2 were retrofitted with steerables for adhesion testing on Cranberry. This was an interesting test, as I had never been on an engine before that developed over 157,000 lb of drawbar pull as measured by the CSX test car, and this was on wet rail.....

Ed,

There is no way that GE would ever "mess with" the corporate logo of one of our customers. The decision for the yellow was CSX's, and I was in that meeting. Although they seemed more interested in the use of lightning bolts, in my personal opinion. I cannot remember if we charged CSX for the change to the AC4400's and the AC6000's that were for the road numbers and the paint and trim changes.

I attended an open house at Cumberland a few years after the AC4400's and AC6000's were in service. The engine that I photographed was an SD70 though.......

I was also involved in the "Diversity" sign. I think that we applied it to either three or five units...I forget. The CSX Inspector bypassed the Project Office to get that done, but I found out about it. I expected objections from my paint shop gang but the CSX guy had a lot of friends, and so paint supported it. CSX provided the decals for this....

Your information is really interesting to me. My son worked at the shops then, just hired two weeks after leaving the US Navy. He did work with the GE's back then,

but just as a learning electrician.

Speaking of the drawbar pull of the 1 (or 2) can you imagine what the later 4400's

designated as the heavies will do, I understand (you will know more about this) that

they have better wheel slip electronics and are ballasted to the weight of the 6000's.

 

Anyway, I got my first digital camera back in 1999, and here is the engine that you

likely took pictures of, the competition's 70Ace.

The 700 on display at the 2000 open house shops.

Plus a more familiar locomotive behind a fence near the 700.

The 700 was nearly wrecked off the roster less than a year after this photo, but

rebuilt and put back in service, still as the Spirit of Cumberland. Since then 70 Ace's have been renumbered, and she continues in service as the 4500, still the Spirit of

Cumberland.

If you have info about the 4400AH locomotives, even though this thread is about the

6000's I and I'll bet a few of the readers will like to hear!

 

Ed

The AC4400 "heavies" request from CSX was made before I retired. I completed the application and determined that the increase in haulage capacity due to the increased weight and resultant higher adhesion would permit adding only three cars (hoppers) per train. This would be offset by higher wear rates and probably shorter equipment life, physics being what it is, although the AC4400's had plenty of equipment margin. CSX thought differently, and pointed out that, while three cars per train was "not much", every 34th train would be "free"....or not have to be dispatched.....

What made this possible was a tractive effort software package with higher capability and changes in the control system, in short, quite a few changes. I think but cannot confirm that the first AC4400's with the changes were numbered in the 500 series, and these were shipped after I retired. They were also ballasted to 432,000 lb with full service, while the earlier ones were at 420,000. The AC6000's were shipped at 436k full service as a result of the requirement for at least 6000 gal of useable fuel capacity, or 1 gallon per Hp. The latest ES44's are also at 432,000 and have the enhanced tractive effort package, along with considerable fuel savings over anything else available.

Ed,

I just took a close look at your pix of the EMD #700. I am to the left in the photo, and my son Steve is on the right! We were both waiting until the "foot traffic" cleared in order to take a photo with no people in it...

When I posted the photo, I thought what a treat it would be if that were you!

 

Just think, that was fourteen years ago!

 

Ed

Hurts when I think about it....

I look "younger" now...?

All these pictures look great. The AC6000, in any livery looks awe inspiring.