Norfolk Southern has released the first two of its rebuilt SD70ACU locomotives. The program, which began in 2015, is the latest for the railroad to upgrade older and less reliable locomotives in its fleet. The program draws from the 100 former Union Pacific SD9043MACs acquired second hand from EMD. The rebuild program features a complete electrical upgrade, replacing the existing Siemens electrical equipment, including the inverters, with Mitsubishi electronics. The existing cab is replaced with a new isolated SD70ACe cab along with a number of other smaller changes to the locomotive during rebuild. The changes essentially bring the locomotive up to the same mechanical specifications as EMDs SD70ACes. The first two SD70ACUs released from Altoona were NS Nos. 7248 and 7283 in January. Both units were sent to Progress Rail’s Muncie, Ind. plant for testing. A third unit, No. 7319, emerged from the Altoona paint shop. To accelerate the program, NS will have EMD rebuild a number of SD9043MACs concurrent with the ongoing program at Altoona. The first four, NS Nos. 7262, 7267, 7280 and 7295 have already been shipped to Progress Rail’s Muncie plant to begin the rebuild program there. (Trainsnewswire.com)
What is the significance of this “The existing cab is replaced with a new isolated SD70ACe cab “
I don’t know personally…. Maybe safer perhaps?… The only quality that I know of for sure about the SD70ACe cab as opposed to the original cab on the SD90MACs is that the SD70 cab is a little more spacious and possibly more crash worthy than the original
found this ‘isolated from the frame of the locomotive with rubber gaskets ‘, as with truck cabs to isolate noise and vibration.
Ok, thanks for that little nugget of info.