Modern Locomotive Guide

Locomotive: Evolution Series, also known as GEVO

Manufacturer: General Electric

Horsepower Rating: 4000 - 6000 Hp

Prime Mover: 12 Cylinder GEVO Diesel

Weight: 205 Imperial Tons (DC version)

Weight Distribution: 6-axle (C-C), 34.1 Tons per axle on High Adhesion Trucks

Length: 73'2"

Manufacture Dates: 2004 - Present

Number of Units: ? - Still in Production

Visual Identification: The GEVO locomotive looks a lot like it's Dash 9 predecessor, for which it is a replacement. The standard crew cab used on the D9 and D8 series has been reused. Behind the cab sits the AC inverters. This compartment is also present on the DC version, so it's almost impossible to tell whether the unit is AC or DC..

The main spotting feature for this locomotive is the split design radiator. The first half of the radiator houses a heat exchanger set-up that cools the exhausts and reduces locomotive particulate emissions. The second half is is the cooling fan itself. The housing that the fan/exchanger sits in is vertically thicker, giving the unit the illusion that it's either somehow shorter in length or taller in height than it's AC6000 counterparts.

Trivials:- Norfolk Southern has always been a conservative railroad, and so it is when it comes to the GEVO series locomotives. NS is the exclusive buyer of the ES40DC, the lowest horsepower GEVO offered. The railroad maintains that lower horsepower locomotives consume less fuel and require less maintenence and wear than their higher horsepower brethren. NS has good reason to be skeptical of the higher-horse units - both the AC6000 and the SD90 (GM) were miserable failures because of miraid problems with their 6,000 horsepower engines.

- CSX is currently taking delivery (2008) of ES44AC's for coal service that it designates as ES44AH. The locomotive is AC traction powered, but it has special software to improve the traction of the High Adhesion trucks.

ESxx units featured on this website:

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Video -

PRC at Lindale
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General Electric online brochure for the Evolution Series Locomotive:

Evolution Series Website