A Tribute to General Electric's Dash 7 Locomotives
This video covers the time period of November 1994 through August 2000. The video was shot in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, and Tennessee on BNSF's Needles and Thayer Subdivisions; CSXT's Boyles Terminal, Etowah, and W&A Subdivisions; Norfolk Southern's Atlanta North, Atlanta South, Birmingham Terminal, CNO&TP Third, and NA Districts; and Union Pacific's Brinkley Subdivision. General Electric's Dash 7 locomotives were affectionately known as "B-boats" or "C-Boats" depending on whether or not they were four-axle or six-axle locomotives.
Introduced in late 1976, the Dash 7 locomotive series was General Electric's attempt to wrestle away some of the market share from its arch rival in the locomotive building industry, GM's Electro Motive Division. With the mass arrival of newer GE C44-9W and GM SD70M locomotives on today's Class One U.S. railroads, the number of remaining Dash 7 locomotives still in active service is ever dwindling. Both BNSF and CSXT still operate a moderate fleet of Dash 7s but Norfolk Southern retired the last remaining Dash 7 locomotives on its roster in 2003. Union Pacific still operates a handful of Dash 7 locomotives.
We begin our journey on a cold November 1994 afternoon by catching high hood NS U23B #3956 leading NS intermodal train #I02 at Austell, Georgia, and end our trip on a hot and humid August 2000 morning by capturing the ONLY ex-Conrail C30-7A to ever be repainted in NS paint, the #8107, heading up "hot" NS autoparts manifest #197 at Rockmart, Georgia. We will witness B23-7s, B30-7s, B30-7A1s, B36-7s, C30-7s, C30-7As, C36-7s, and even U23Bs (as a BONUS) LEADING trains on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, CSXT, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific railroads! Sit down and relax in that easy chair as we pay a special tribute to General Electric's Dash 7 locomotives! Videography by Brian Morgan. Edited and Produced by Brian Morgan.
| High hood NS B23-7 #3996 leads NINE other NS locomotives of various models and northbound manifest #322 through Aragon, Georgia, milepost 97.8H of Norfolk Southern's Atlanta North District, at 7:07pm on Tuesday, May 30, 2000. This train is included on the DVD. | Unrenumbered Conrail C30-7A #6557 rolls northbound NS empty autorack train #276 by Smith, Georgia, milepost 81.3H of Norfolk Southern's Atlanta North District, at 8:32am on Saturday, August 21, 1999. This train is included on the DVD. |
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Includes on-screen captions with EACH train giving ALL of the following information : Train symbol, train type, origin and destination of train, location, milepost, date, and time of capture. This information is provided for inquiring minds that want to know, and perhaps more importantly, to help fellow railfans plan visits to the featured locations. |
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