BERLIN — GE Transportation announced the launch of a new series of lighter-weight high speed diesel engines, developed in particular for export markets like Asia, Africa, South America, Australia, and New Zealand, where track gauge or the quality of infrastructure means lighter engines and locomotives are required. GE Transportation CEO Rafael Santana confirmed to Trains News Wire that the company will also be offered to North American customers.
The new engine operates at 1,800 rpm and will be offered in either 12- or 16-cylinder configurations, with maximum power of 2,500 hp and 3,300 hp, respectively. At 7.4 pounds per horsepower, GE says the engine will be 40 percent more powerful per pound compared to a medium-speed engine. The new engine design, which is currently undergoing proving trials, meets the emission standards used in GE’s target export markets — both the European Union’s Stage III A/B and the International Union of Railways’ UIC Stage I/II. GE estimates the new engine could result in annual savings for customers of up to $12,000 in diesel and $4,000 in servicing costs. In addition to use in locomotives, the company is targeting potential use in maritime and power-generation applications.
The company said in a prepared statement that the “core architecture of the engine platform was jointly developed with GE’s Distributed Power division, incorporating decades of high-speed engine experience across the Jenbacher and Waukesha product lines. GE Distributed Power is targeting a serialization of the technology to introduce a range of stationary gas engine operating potentially as soon as 2020.”
GE announced that the first rail customer to use the new engine will be Kazakhstan state railway Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) in central Asia, where it will be used to power 300 switcher locomotives ordered earlier this year. GE Transportation will deliver the first switcher to KTZ in 2019.
GE also announced a contract to supply five of its PH37ACi ‘PowerHaul’ locos to the first private rail freight operator in Turkey, where the government-owned rail network has been opened to other operators state railway TCDD during 2017. Private operator Korfez Ulastirma, owned by Turkey’s largest oil company, Tüpraş, has ordered the locos and will use them to operate oil-products trains between the company’s refineries.
GE and its Turkish partner TÜLOMSAŞ will build the locos Turkey using components supplied by GE Transportation. The GE PowerHaul PH37ACi six axle design is equipped with a 16-cylinder 3,700 HP GE PowerHaul P616 engine and has previously been supplied to Turkish state rail operator TCDD (as Turkish Class DE36000).
