Florida East Coast to acquire 24 GE ES44C4's

[reinhardtjh]

With all the fans of FEC here I thought this would be of interest

http://fecrwy.investorroom.com/2014-01-30-Florida-East-Coast-Railway-Acquires-24-Locomotives-From-GE-Transportation

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Wow, well that explains the cold snap down there.

Non EMD power on the FEC? Crazy!!

I wonder if they're going to paint em up in the red and yellow.

[PEIR]

That is a huge order for the FEC. Do these new units spell the end of the SD40-2's?

[Leggy]

Heard these may come in several lots vs being delivered all at once and may also have the NextFuel LNG/LPG system fitted. Quite interesting they've gone with the C4s.

[Robbman]

Non EMD power on the FEC? Crazy!!

If FEC had the issues NS has had with it's SD70M-2s... not surprising at all.  Especially considering FEC probably doesn't have the 'pull' with EMD like NS, or any other large road, does.  I.e, 'sure we'll buy more SD70ACe's from you, but you're going to replace all the POS cast water pumps that keep cracking and dumping water all over these M-2s we bought from you'

[Erik W]

I wonder if they're going to paint em up in the red and yellow.

Ed,

They should paint them in the blue scheme from the 90s, with the white/red safety stripes . . . I think I'm just stuck in the past. 

Erik

[reinhardtjh]

New "exclusive" information posted on the Trains Newswire:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – New details have emerged on Florida East Coast’s first ever order for General Electric locomotives.

FEC General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Robert Ledoux tells Trains News Wire that the new locomotives will come in the company's red and yellow “Champion” paint scheme that was initially used on FEC’s passenger locomotives beginning in 1939. The railroad has recently started applying the scheme to its fleet of EMD SD40-2 locomotives.

Ledoux also confirms that the 11 EMD SD70M-2s on FEC will become surplus after the arrival of the new locomotives and will eventually depart from the roster.

Delivery of the 24 new ES44C4s will begin in the fourth quarter of 2014. GE hasn’t determined whether FEC’s order will be built in Erie, Pa., or Ft. Worth, Texas, at this time.

Ledoux says road numbers for the ES44C4s have not been assigned yet.

I wonder if they're going to paint em up in the red and yellow.

See the above bolded quote.

Non EMD power on the FEC? Crazy!!

And apparently less EMD power if the SD70M-2's are surplussed. But keeping the older SD40-2's.

Whole report is here for those with Trains access.

http://trn.trains.com/en/Railroad%20News/News%20Wire/2014/02/Additional%20details%20emerge%20on%20FECs%20ES44C4%20order.aspx

[sundowner]

The SD70m-2 have been disappointments, FEC has had all kind of issues with them.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Awesome.

I do love that 80s and 90s scheme though too!

[reinhardtjh]

A few picture postings of the new power:

803, 804 en route to FEC via CSX:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=507178&nseq=7

804, 803 leading FEC train 101 for the first time:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=507566&nseq=8
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=507578&nseq=4

804 at rest in Florida along with SD40-2 716:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=507587&nseq=7

815 up north on the GE test track in Erie (along with a new CN ES44AC and a Tier 4 demo in primer):
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=507772

7 more enroute to Florida on Nov 26th
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=508164

[sizemore]

That looks so HAWT!


The S.

[Bob Bufkin]

Ed the Jan 2015 issue of Trains has a good article on FEC.

[Spikre]

 
  nice paint job !
  the locos may not be BL2s,but they arnt that bad looking.
   the C4 does make good sense in relatively flat Florida.
  this is the 1st road since BNSF to put C4s in service ?
  may FEC have good service from them.
       Spikre
       

[Erik W]

I gotta say the red and yellow scheme looks pretty sharp.  As a fan of the blue scheme, I think I'm being won over.  Would be nice to see the FEC pick one scheme and stick with it though.   


http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures%5C82751%5CFEC%20711%20(1%20of%201)-2.jpg

Erik

[C855B]

Hmm. I found the blue scheme a little sterile. The restoration of the heritage "champion" scheme is a breath of fresh air. I hope they keep on with it.

Doesn't completely quash my grudge with FEC, however... forced by the protracted strike during the Ball years, FEC was singularly responsible for proving you could run mainline trains without cabooses. Yeah, FREDs would have come eventually, but FEC's success with the program killed cabooses about 10 years earlier than it would have occurred otherwise. Thanks a bunch.