BNSF Order EMD SD70ACe's for 2006

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

 

Purely a guess, yes the Powered River Basin.

Best regards,
Swafford

 

Seems as though I read the same thing somewhere..............................

 

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.

 

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

 

Nice to see BNSF joining "the club"

Maybe they'll show up on NS for me to see

Harold

 

Is there an external spotting difference between the AC and DC units?

 

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.

 

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...

 

Thanks for the details there Robbman.

 

I would love to see Kato build an HO SD70ACe in BNSF Scheme. Those Tower55's are just way too pricy. Allan.