For those of you unfamiliar with Brazil's railroads they run on both broad (1600mm) and narrow (1067mm) gauges. If you search for 'Vale' 'EFC' or 'EFVM' you'll find photos and info (mostly not in english) of their huge iron ore operations over there. How does this relate to the above picture? Late last year/early this year Vale (who own EFC and EFVM) purchased 7 EMD SD80ACe locomotives (that's right, an 80ACe, 5000hp) which have entered service and been running happily.
EFVM runs on the NG tracks and has a fleet of BB40-9s and BB40-9Ws amongst others, the Dash-9s (which are still built to this day) making up the majority of the fleet. These brutes are C40-9Ws on 4x 4-axle bogies connected by span bolsters. I wasn't sure EMD would come up with a rival but as the above shows they've got the option available for a 8-axle SD80ACe. Will we see this in Brazil? Who knows!
