Cursed Trains

Most puzzling is that EMD had already designed a SD70ACe for Russian Gauge networks, featuring a cab derived from Australian exports. While the design existed for years, it only was put into production in 2024, for a new coal mining project in Mongolia.

As an aside, Yakutia weren't shy about adopting US technology, and both their shunting and mainline fleets primarily consist of soviet-era locomotives rebuilt with General Electric prime movers.

Sadly, for fans of US-made diesels on Russian broad gauge, the 2TE3250 was not to be, with a license production offer being shot down by the Yakutian railways due to the high cost to set up a production line. GE already had a facility on the CIS's network in Kazakhstan, anyway.

Other notable features include the apparent winterization of dynamic brakes, and the addition of nose-mounted classification lighting. These can also operate on both diesel and LNG.

In effect, these are to a SD70ACe what a SD39 is to a SD40 - the version with a downsized, but still turbocharged prime mover. The 42 comes from the GT42 from which the prime mover is taken - a standard-issue EMD export one can find from Peru to Tunisia.

There are a few misconceptions with these units, which tie into what makes them just so unique - these are not domestic SD70ACEs. These are SD42ACes. The main difference is they have V12 710 prime movers, each of which puts out 3250hp, as opposed to the V16 710 used by the SD70.

The EMD SD42ACe - aka TE3250 - is the product of a series of very strange circumstances, leading what is a unit in a domestic EMD carbody to ply the rails of the former USSR for the first time.

Many ALCO units found long careers after being repowered; the USSR was no exception. TEM1 first-generation switching locomotives, from the late 1970s on, were rebuilt in Astrakhan with the same, inline-six prime mover of the successful Czech T.669/CHME3 series. This called for a higher long hood.

DJs may have been bastards, but they absolutely did their job once new engines were dropped in. However, many aspects worked and continue to work against them. The reports of unreliability were never truly beaten; and many enthusiasts scorned them for finally driving the last steam power out.

The DJs would only last 23 years in service. By 1991, the class was deemed unsuitable for conversion to one-person operation, and was retired and scrapped en masse. One wonders if politics was involved in putting down these bastard children instead of selling them overseas.

Eventually, the locomotives would dodge being fitted with a 1200hp Paxman engine to instead simply get the same prime mover as NZR's fleet of U10Bs. But the damage was done.

The DJ was a mess. On paper, it could do 1050 horsepower for 5 minutes, then 980 for an hour, then 880 for another hour. While unreliable in themselves, the DJ did have some unique and frankly interesting features. For example, a DJ was mechanically compatible with English Electric's MU system.

...like, for example, if it was possible to slot between the incredibly demanding commuter schedules of JNR to test the machines. It wasn't. The end result?

That was the only thing the NZR staff bothered to communicate. Considering the amounts of alcohol imbued; it was the only thing they could communicate. While they were familiar with the nightlife of Tokyo, they certainty were not familiar with the abilities of Mitsuibishi at the time...

The DJs were to be designed by Mitsuibishi with oversight from NZR staff. Such a procedure requires close collaboration. However, this... allegedly didn't really work out. NZR's staff were basically busy plying themselves with alcohol, leaving Mitsuibishi with only "can it haul 8 coaches at 63mph."

Mitsubishi was a surprise, coming in at around 28000£NZ cheaper than the other options. As the World Bank had their fingers in the pie, it was decided that the cheapest option would be gone through. And now the story changes gears to a borderline mythological one.

As part of the tender for the South Island dieselization, the DI was chosen as the prototype - of course, the South had already been home to considerable numbers of the mechanically-compatible NZR DG Class. EMD was the alleged frontrunner, with their G8s and G12s giving great service.

...The design went through various revisions. The earliest NZR examples had a very low-slung cab; Nigeria got ones with a curved profile, the Midland Railway of Western Australia got six-axle, four-motor machines, and QR got six motors. Eventually, NZR's examples would have a short hood.

The genesis of the design lies with the vaugely similar-looking NZR DI Class. Part of a lineage of Inline-6 powered English Electric export designs which had, from the early 1950s on, been both manufactured domestically for England's then-colonies in Africa and neocolonial holdings in Latam...

NZR's DJ class were, arguably, the strangest locomotives on that network. These Bo-Bo-Bo machines were built by Mitsubishi of Japan in the late 1960s, as part of a growing effort to phase out the last holdouts of New Zealand Steam.

An orange locomotive in an open field, with a hilly, forested backdrop. A road runs behind it, it's likely on a siding.

A locomotive painted for New South Wale's 200th anniversary, in red, yellow, blue, and white, at Sydney Central Station.

For what it's worth, these were Comeng's only real attempt a hood unit. Their siblings, the CE615 class operated by NSWGR as their 80 Class, were built to a much boxier design, but shared the same unreliability issues.

A red locomotive in front of a shed, looking derelict and graffitied

After an uneventful career, bouncing between standard and narrow gauges in Western Australia, the CE618 was only rendered extinct in 2022, when the last engine in the class was cut up after a long period of storage.

Two Comeng CE618 locomotives in Western Australia. They are orange, with a blue stripe lengthwise, and of a hood unit arrangement.

Commonwealth Engineering's CE618 was one of the rare occasions an Alco-engined machine missed. Unreliable from the start, a popular rumor is that they were built by Comeng using leftover Alco components from their previous licensee closing up.