GE Dash 9-40C

The GE Dash 9-40C, designated by GE Transportation as the C40-9, was a diesel-electric locomotive produced at GE's manufacturing facility in Erie, Pennsylvania. Production of the type was remarkably brief, spanning only from January 1995 through March 1995, and the entire output of 125 units went to a single customer: Norfolk Southern Railway. Norfolk Southern numbered these locomotives 8764 through 8888, and the railroad's preference for the traditional standard cab design set this model apart from every other locomotive in GE's Dash 9 series, which otherwise adopted the wider safety cab configuration. Norfolk Southern's decision to specify the standard cab was a deliberate one, and the railroad reportedly had interest in acquiring additional units built to the same configuration. That prospect was ultimately foreclosed when the Federal Railroad Administration required that future purchases conform to the wide-cab standard, directing Norfolk Southern toward the otherwise closely related C40-9W instead. As a result, the C40-9 stands as the sole Dash 9 variant to retain the conventional cab, a distinction that also makes it one of the last large road locomotives GE built to that configuration for a major American carrier. In the mid-2010s, Norfolk Southern undertook a systematic program to extend and enhance the value of its C40-9 fleet. Beginning around 2015, units entering their 184-day maintenance cycles were upgraded to C44-9 specification, raising output from the original 3,000 kilowatts to approximately 3,281 kilowatts. Separately, at least one unit, NS 8799, was rebuilt as an AC44C6M, receiving AC traction motors, a new wide-nose GE cab, and cab signal equipment as part of a collaborative project between Norfolk Southern and General Electric to evaluate the economic viability of converting the broader Dash 9 fleet to AC traction. Work on some of these conversions was performed by American Motive Power in Dansville, New York. By 2023, virtually all surviving C40-9 units had been rebuilt as AC44C6Ms, with the exception of NS 8798, which was scrapped in 2018 following a collision.

The C40-9 was rated at 4,000 horsepower and powered by GE's 7FDL-16 prime mover, a sixteen-cylinder engine that placed it a step below the 4,400-horsepower 7FDL-16 installation found in the contemporaneous C44-9W. The locomotive rode on a Co-Co wheel arrangement, meaning each of its two trucks carried three powered axles, giving it six axles in total. Traction was provided by GE's direct-current B13B motors. The use of DC traction motors was consistent with GE's standard practice for road locomotives of the era, though it would later factor into the decision to pursue AC motor conversions as part of Norfolk Southern's fleet modernization efforts. One visually distinctive feature of the C40-9 was its rooftop-mounted air conditioning equipment, which created a profile that observers informally described as a top hat appearance. Beyond this detail and the standard cab, the C40-9 was mechanically and structurally very similar to the wide-cab C40-9W, sharing the same basic Dash 9 platform that GE had developed to improve fuel efficiency and reliability compared to its earlier Dash 8 series. The short production run and single-railroad ownership of the type make it one of the more specialized locomotive classes of the mid-1990s GE catalog.

Models by: Athearn