I have seen (online and in print) many people singing the praises of the blue and green GE locomotive with hybrid technology. It does seem very impressive with those directional led's etc and the extra details both MTH and Lionel have put in them. The consensus seems to be overwhelming positive.
That leaves me with the question, if I bought it, what would I pull with it? Lionel suggests pairing it with their ethanol tanker cars, but I don't know why. The few youtube videos I can find of the prototype are dated and all it is pulling is its matching baggage car/mobile laboratory.
So, I would like to know, when will we see this prototype in actual commercial service by a major railroad? What will it pull? Since I noticed that BNSF seems to reserve their AC units for coal drags, is that the likely service it will see when it goes into production? (Haha, wouldn't it be ironic to use "green" technology to pull "dirty" coal commodity?)
Or is this just like the concept cars you see every year at the Detroit auto show, which are not meant for actual production in the future?
