The EMD GP59 is a 4-axle diesel
locomotive model built by
General Motors Electro-Motive Division
Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its su ...
between 1985 and 1989. Power was provided by a 12-
cylinder
A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base.
A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...
EMD 710
The EMD 710 is a line of diesel engines built by Electro-Motive Diesel (previously General Motors' Electro-Motive Division). The 710 series replaced the earlier EMD 645 series when the 645F series proved to be unreliable in the early 1980s 50-se ...
G3A diesel engine, which could produce . This locomotive shared the same common frame with the
EMD GP60, giving it an overall length of . It featured a fuel tank. 36 examples of this locomotive were built including three demonstrators.
Norfolk Southern
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...
placed the only order for the GP59 and also acquired the three demonstrators which featured an
aerodynamic
Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...
cab.
By adding a
full cowl body, a
comfort cab, and an
HEP generator, the GP59 became the
EMD F59PH
The EMD F59PH is a four-axle B-B diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division from 1988 to 1994. A variant, the F59PHI, was produced from 1994 to 2001. The F59PH was originally built for GO Transit commuter oper ...
.
In 2011 Norfolk Southern began a program to upgrade their fleet of GP59s, the only GP59s operating anywhere. The first one was not released until March 2013 as NS 4650 GP59E. The GP59E features a new EM2000 microprocessor, an all-new electrical cabinet with SmartStart auto start/stop, rebuilt 12-710G3C-BC prime-mover with EMDEC EUI system, NS-designed split cooling, the NS Admiral cab with cab signals, LSL, and CCB26 electronic brake valve. The GP59E is set up to operate with NS class RP-M4C road slugs.
In 2016, Norfolk Southern began a program to upgrade
GP50 and GP59 units to GP59ECO's. These will be similar to the
GP33ECO locomotives, but these units will be paid for by Norfolk Southern, not government funding. In June 2016, the first unit, 4662, was completed, rebuilt from GP50 7073.
Original owners
External links
* Sarberenyi, Robert.
EMD GP60, GP60M, GP60B, and GP59 Original Owners'
* AltoonaWorks.info
'
GP59
B-B locomotives
Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States
Railway locomotives introduced in 1985
Freight locomotives
Standard gauge locomotives of the United States
{{diesel-loco-stub