GE U28B

The GE U28B was a four-axle, B-B road switcher diesel-electric locomotive introduced by General Electric in early 1966. It emerged as the direct successor to the U25B, which had established General Electric as a serious competitor in the domestic road locomotive market against the long-dominant Electro-Motive Division. The transition from the U25B to the U28B was modest in scope, representing an incremental power increase rather than a fundamental redesign, and the model's production life was correspondingly brief, lasting only through 1966 before the U30B took its place. A total of 146 units were constructed during this single year of production, making the U28B one of the shorter-lived and less numerous entries in General Electric's Universal series. The model received attention even before its release, as Trains Magazine editor David P. Morgan addressed GE's decision to settle on a 2,800 horsepower rating in a November 1965 article that included line drawings of the proposed short-nose configuration. Buyers included several prominent American railroads, among them the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and the Louisville and Nashville, both of which received examples late in the production run. The U28B occupies a transitional place in General Electric's locomotive lineage. Early production units retained the body styling established by the U25B, while later examples incorporated design refinements, notably a shortened nose, that pointed toward the aesthetic direction GE would pursue in subsequent models. Though quickly superseded by the more powerful U30B, the U28B helped sustain GE's momentum during a period when the company was steadily gaining market share against EMD. Only two U28B locomotives are known to survive in preservation. One, originally built as Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 114 in December 1966, is held at the Illinois Railway Museum. The other, originally Louisville and Nashville 2504, is preserved at the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum, though it was rebuilt to U30B specifications during its working career.

The U28B was powered by GE's FDL16 prime mover, a 16-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine that produced 2,800 horsepower for traction purposes. This represented an increase of 300 horsepower over the U25B's output, achieved through refinements to the same basic engine architecture rather than a wholly new powerplant. The locomotive rode on a B-B wheel arrangement, meaning two two-axle trucks with all axles powered, and employed a direct current traction system consistent with standard practice for road diesels of that era. The overall mechanical layout followed the established Universal series pattern, with the prime mover, main generator, and auxiliary equipment arranged along a full-length structural underframe. Externally, the U28B exhibited a degree of variation across its production run that reflects its transitional character. Early units shared the longer nose and general carbody lines of the U25B, while later units received a shorter nose that became more characteristic of GE's subsequent road locomotive offerings. This shortened nose design improved the crew's forward visibility and gave the later U28B units a somewhat different visual profile despite their mechanical similarity to their predecessors. The relatively compact production run of 146 units means that surviving mechanical and documentary evidence is limited, and the model is today studied primarily as a link between the pioneering U25B and the more successful and longer-lived U30B.

Models by: Walthers