The days of John Henry racing against a steam powered hammer may be gone, but that doesn’t mean GE can’t whip up an old-fashioned railroad contest of its own. A head-to-head fuel test was conducted between GE’s Evolution locomotive and the emission-compliant model made by EMD — GE’s major North American competitor. The result? According to an independent research study, GE’s locomotives are over 6 percent more fuel-efficient compared to their EMD counterparts.The days of John Henry racing against a steam powered hammer may be gone, but that doesn’t mean GE can’t whip up an old-fashioned railroad contest of its own. A head-to-head fuel test was conducted between GE’s Evolution locomotive and the emission-compliant model made by EMD — GE’s major North American competitor. The result? According to an independent research study, GE’s locomotives are over 6 percent more fuel-efficient compared to their EMD counterparts.
Victory lap: GE Transportation has delivered more than 3,200 Evolution Series locomotives to its railway customers operating in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Australia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Egypt. Approximately 17,000 GE locomotives, including the Evolution Series Locomotives, are in use in more than 50 countries around the world.
Based on the 6% fuel savings, the equivalent Green House Gas (GHG) reduction from operating GE’s Evolution ES44AC compared to EMD’s SD70ACe would be more than 200 tons of carbon dioxide per year, or more than 4,000 tons over the 20-year life of the locomotive. That means that each Evolution Locomotive has an annual positive GHG impact equivalent to removing 35 cars from the road, or planting 55 acres of trees.
“We invested $400 million over eight years to develop the most technologically advanced, fuel-efficient and low-emissions freight locomotive to-date,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, President and CEO of GE Transportation. “This test result further validates our investment strategy.”
GE Transportation engaged a nationally recognized independent research laboratory to conduct the Tier 2 locomotive fuel consumption testing. The lab conducted the tests in late January and early February 2009. A Class 1 Railroad supplied two GE and two EMD test locomotives of similar age and road use for the test.
The head-to-head fuel tests were performed using reproducible and repeatable processes. A single batch of fuel was used to test all four locomotives, the same test equipment and personnel were used to measure power and fuel consumption rate, and tests were performed during similar ambient air temperature conditions. In addition, duplicate tests were performed at each of the power-producing notch positions for each locomotive.
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