BNSF Order EMD SD70ACe's for 2006 Just reviewed the Second Quarter 2005 BNSF "Alliance Mechanical" Employee News letter: "EMD has not built a locomotive for BNSF for seven years, but a deal has been inked that calls for BNSF to purchase 30 AC locomotives to be delivered in 2006. The SD70ACe provides unit reduction, fuel savings and additional revenue tonnage capability over SD40-2's. Three SD70ACe's can replace 5 SD40-2's in high tractive effort operations. Operation of fewer units results in significant maintenance and operating savings." http://www.newslinkinc.com/Pubs/ALMEC/ALMEC0507.pdf Page 8 Best regards, Swafford
Excellent! Thanks for the link! Welcome aboard, while I'm at it, eh? Are they slated for coal service?
Hey doofus, You’re right, over on the RailroadForum. http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10671&page=4 Soo6617 provided information that confirmed the news. For the last several months I had seen rumour of the order but no person until now provided information from BNSF to confirm. Now there is written proof. Best regards, Swafford
After reviewing the Trains magazine April issue, it appears now that BNSF has ordered 70 SD70Ace’s for 2006. “While BNSF hasn’t said what models it will get, at least 70 are expected to be SD70ACe." Best regards, Swafford
My Friend just gopt a job with EMD starting Monday to work on the electrical cabinets on these monsters.
Wow, what a challenge! And I find a multimeter confusing? Just imagine the complexity of the circuits inside an ACe!!
OK, so we got: -UP -UP Heritage Units -MRL -KCS -CSX and, now, BNSF? Anybody got some popcorn so we can watch Kato falling over themselves to get this thing built? Thank goodness I'm stuck in 1998. Still might get a Katy though.
Tower55 will be producing the SD70ACe’s this year in HO. Check out their website: http://www.tower55products.com/index.php Best regards, Swafford
Apparently, from what he told me, is that they are fairly easy to understand. He said it was like a "paint" by number thing. Item 1 goes into socket 1a and so on, it looks dauting from the out side but it acually pretty easy...paraphrased from our converstation.
Yes. They involve the cabinet behind the cab on the conductors side of the unit, as well as other changes on the conductors side... SD70ACes have two rectangular vented doors followed by a square X-panel on the cabinet. SD70M-2s have three rectangular doors, not vented, followed by a square panel with a square vent in the lower right hand corner. On the carbody of a SD70ACE, above the cabinet and to the left of the inertial intake grill is a large box. This is not present on the SD70M-2s On the frame of the SD70M-2s, below the three rectangular doors, is a 'wing' of sheetmetal. This is not present on the SD70ACes.
Wow, if I ever have a project to build a custom loco, and want the rivet counters to be dumbfounded (not due to my skills, however), I'll contact Robbman. What a wealth of info!
This should be good. I once saw someone's custom-painted model of a BNSF SD90MAC. Looked good. Well, we'll get something that looks almost like it...
I would love to see Kato build an HO SD70ACe in BNSF Scheme. Those Tower55's are just way too pricy. Allan.