Buffalo & Pittsburgh commissions second genset switcher
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefEarlier this year, Brookville Equipment Corp. took an ancient EMD SW-9 switch locomotive and transformed it into a twin-engine, 1,400-hp ultra-low-emission, twin-genset switcher for Genesee & Wyoming’s Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad. No. 1401, the first of two such units, is equipped with two 700-hp Cummins QSK19 diesel engines.
The control system is Brookville’s proprietary TMV (Traction Motor Vehicle) microprocessor technology. The gensets are EPA-certified to Tier II Rail and Tier III Off-Road emissions standards.
Brookville supplied the genset assemblies in kit form; B&P’s locomotive shop forces managed all design and construction work and performed the overall rebuild.
On Dec. 10, B&P commissioned a second, identical “home-built” unit. No 1400 (pictured here in its new configuration and paint scheme as well as its original RSS 771 livery at Galveston Port Terminal, Texas, “concludes our CMAQ funding project for the construction of two gensets using kit technology,” said Genesee & Wyoming Vice President Motive Power David L. Powell. “We are proud of what our skilled mechanical people have built.”
G&W has a third, identical genset being built with ARRA-DERA Stimulus funds, again with a Brookville QSK-19 engine kit. This unit, which is expected to be completed by year-end, is being built at G&W’s Ohio Central Railroad Morgan Run shops at Coshocton, Ohio. It will be numbered OHCR no. 1402.
