How The GEVO Dominated American Railroads 

Just now realizing the CSX 7250 clip at 0:01 and the NS 4000 pic at 0:10 aren't GEVOs, they're AC44s. I swear I double checked the model type but oh well, they looks close enough lol. Also the ES44C4 has AC traction motors, not DC as seen at 4:29, I forgot to change that. Sorry about that.

“What allowed the GEVO to dominate?” because they’re good engines. i don’t care if foamers don’t like them.

Class 1s trying not to put a GEVO on a mainline train (impossible)

Funny how just 30 years earlier, people were complaining about SD40-2s being "to common" and now here we are saying the same thing about ES44s, and SD40-2s being rare birds everyone tries to catch. TRAINS magazine said it best years ago, people always want what they don't have, and some day, the ES44 will join that category!

6:45 I’m glad that someone else is pointing this out, the SD40-2 was the GEVO of its day

Suprising how much gevos impacted modern railroad, the u.s, mexico,canada, heck even Australia. Its crazy how a company who builds washing machines made a big name in the railroad business

I'm just counting down the days until GEVOs are as rare as the SD40-2 is today

An interesting note about the CSX and NS DC gevos, CSX in around 2010 Downrated all their ES44DCs to 4000 HP, reclassifying them as ES40DCs. A few years later, NS did the opposite and updated all their ES40DCs to 4400 HP, turning theirs into ES44DC. Kind of interesting how they sort of just swapped

Railfan me hates them but railroader me enjoys wherever I get in the cab of one. If I have to spend up to 12 hours in an engine I'll take a GEVO or AC44C6M any day.

Nice vid as always! GEVOs are today what the SD40-2 and F40PH-2 was when I was a youngster. Everywhere and boring. But before you know it, they'll be gone. Enjoy them while they're fresh and clean, they'll not stay that way forever.

For how much the ES44AC is overrated to many, you can't deny how revolutionary they've been to the rail industry

Fun fact: Brazil started the 4400hp GEVO production in late 2021 to early 2022, and the ac44is producion life went from 2009 to late 2022. Now the gevo is slowly but steadily populating Brazilian rails.

As a railroader I will say the gevos are the nicest things. Love riding in them

The flip side of this is: How come EMD fell so far behind? And how come GE/Wabtec (and EMD) apparently gave up on the passenger locomotive market? That is now dominated by Siemens, with a secondary contribution from Bombardier that is specific to New Jersey Transit (with a few also running in Montreal, although no longer under the wire).

All of my friends fringe when they hear the term *"gevo"*, but honestly, I take every chance I have to photograph or film them, cuz dang! Those locomotives are freaking huge and loud and cool and bla bla bla and you never know when the epa will make them go away 😅 Plus, dang, they just look epic!

Growing up I used to love seeing GE locomotives on the front of trains (primarily the Dash 9s and AC4400 at the time). Now as an adult I love seeing EMD units especially the SD70 series. Thats such a good looking locomotive and the sound can’t be beat.

Correction: 4:29 The ES44C4 actually has 4 AC traction motors, not 4 DC traction motors. Also, the ES44C4 has a system that raises the unpowered middle axle to put more weight and traction on the outer 2 powered axles.

I think the GEVO is a prime example of the saying “you cant hate something without loving it a bit”.

From a freight conductor perspective Most of GE's locomotives are good with the exception of the Dash 9s or Trash 9s as they've become lovelingly known

6:38 I miss the Hawkeye express it was the only thing that my dad could do to get me to go watch football with him and I’m sad that it’s gone but at least the loco and cars are being well used

I see these locomotives so much since I live in California (BNSF and Union Pacific) (and sometimes CSX and Norfolk Southern as foreign power)

GEVOS revolutionized the industry. The AC versions are the greatest diesel-electric locomotives ever built. Hands down, bar none, period, end of discussion, I rest my case, etc. They can pull anything, they are reliable, they are ergonomic and comfortable, their DPU integration is the best in the industry, and their precise control in dynamics is 2nd to none. You can zero the dynamic braking effort on a C45AC to within a gnat's ass of where you want it. With an EMD, you're lucky if you can get ballpark accuracy, assuming the garbage dynamics on them are even worth using in the first place. GE really built a masterpiece.

I would love to see a SD40-2 spotlight video.

My first time seeing a ET44AC in person was a csx man!…those radiators are freaking massive!

I have to say, I originally always loved seeing an Ace or a 70 and hated Gevos but as I hired with the railroad and work the Roseville Sub to Sparks up over Donner, I realized just like every other engineer how much we wanted to see a c45 at the front and as our helper, they are the most reliable engines compared to everything else. GE tested 2 of them out here at our summit throught the 2 mile long tunnel 41 that sits on 2% grade where we have the most stalls and put one into Brake 8 and one into run 8 to take their computers to the most maxed out they could be and ran them back and forth and then created a computer that could handle that. No other locomotive, besides the now sd70aceT4 can take out axles and it makes it so easier. It is the best mountain engine in the current day

Imagine having SD40-2s everywhere in your childhood but you haven’t turned 30 yet

There’s a railway near my neighborhood with a quarry. They have a smaller grey gevo model as a dedicated shunter and the larger orange ones would pass through pulling either massive stone trains or general goods trains to and from the Galveston port or who knows where. There’s also a small passenger train that passes by in the early morning but it’s not a gevo. No idea what model it is. All I know is it’s blue and silver with a somewhat rounded front end.

In the future Gevos could be gone sooner than you may expect as I was flipping, through some of my train magazines. I saw some news about electric locomotives, and I know news has been around them a lot one day they may replace the gevos.

Very informative production, many thanks! It was exactly this Loco I was chasing when I visited the US this year. Love to see her :D

One thing that I think is interesting is that in my 11 years of railroading for two different Class I's, as well as working directly along side GE Technical Advisors that entire time - in the shop environment, GEVO refers only to the Diesel Engine. The locomotive is referred to as an EVO - in conversation, on technical material, in directives and policies, everywhere. Yet the entire railfan community seems to use GEVO to refer to the entire locomotive, and are completely unaware that anyone might use the term "EVO." Just think it's interesting that the two groups are completely oblivious to each others' terminology.

Dude these thumbnails look actually insane keep up the amazing work!

The fact these things have been around since 2005 (2003 if you count preproduction models) means these things really were a head of there time.

Greatings from Italy. I love your specials!

I think for a more complete picture of why the GEVO is so dominant it needs to be examined why the SD70 series didn’t. That would be harder to research but would answer a lot of the questions I came in with and still came away with unanswered

Can you also do a video on the Canadian Pacific on how they connected with the Kansas City Southern Railroad to connect as CPKS?

well done! love your vids!

The GE locomotive plant in north Fort Worth was sold to WabTec. Last I heard they were no longer building new units and are only doing rehabs because the railroads are not buying any new ones. The units coming out of there look really sharp. GE had, or still has, a facility on the west side of Fort Worth Alliance Airport that electronically monitors GE locos worldwide.

Liked and shared! Keep doing what you’re doing

Nice. Of the lot, the ES58ACs are the brutes of the family, but you cannot ser it on the North of the Continent. The Carajás Railway in Brazil has them, with most built locally by Wabtec Brazil. These units do a really brute force job; 50.000 Metric Ton, 3,6 Km, 330 car trains hauling Iron ore in DPU mode, with units of the type or older Dash-9s. As many as 5 units can be used on these trains

They only got half the story. EMD hurt itself with the unreliable SD50, which allowed GE to become the largest seller of locomotives. After EMD was sold to Caterpillar, they were slow to develop locomotives that met the new standards. They are now catching up. I live near a CSX line. They got fed up with EMD after the SD50's and bought very few of their products thereafter. They have not bought any SD70ace's, which is Caterpillar's latest model, but that is not the case with the other major railroads.

Great informative video. I'm an EMD fan but I enjoyed your video!!!

5:58 Odd Thing: 552 has it's Santa Fe Logo back to Red due to Graffiti as shown there.

Honestly I think the single greatest factor behind the rise of the GEVO has been the complacency of EMD. They never fully recovered after the mess that was the SD-50.

that ES43ACi (GEU 40 9007) 4:52 recently got derailed that was leading 5Up Green Line Express few months ago but thankfully nothing was damaged as the loco stayed up as its front truck 6 wheels only got derailed and while rear truck 6 wheels where still on track that was cruising at 80+ Kmph with the help of its safety standards and computers immediately applied its emergency brakes, it just had some minor issues for wheels and tucks parts and now its running back on tracks \ ps this loco almost collided with other train 37Up fareed Express that was on loop line so the 5up Green Line overtake the stationary Train ,There was almost a 1 inch distance side to side left that this loco would collided with passenger coaches which thankfully i didnt happend the reason for derail was the malfunctioning of changing the tracks that its front wheels collides with it and got derail but as for rear wheels i think the track that wasn't in right place before front wheels about to hit made it to right place thats might it didnt got got deraild , its video of live derailment is out on facebook and as well as on youtube aswell here it is 👇👇👇 ru-vid.comxpnae05LKko?si=VRGL9b1VSR3RShko

truly the 4-4-0 of the 21st century.

Could you do all of the GE's starting from the c44 dash 9?

I appreciate the better emissions standards than the -7s and -8s, but I sure wish Westinghouse was better on reuse rather than scrapping and recycling; even if it's good to recycle, it's still an unnecessary waste of energy if it still works. Here on the Peavine, I see a lot of -9s and maybe even a few -8s, I can tell because they're bonnets and H2s. Once saw a pair of SD40s in BN green, even. Also, you deserve a gold medal for using 2001 footage and not 2000 for "at the turn of the 21st century".

Great video!

The horns on the Gevo's are my 3rd favorite after the M5 and Amtrak, SD70ACe has a terribly loud horn, without seeing I can tell with type of locomotive is coming.

The American Vectron/ Traxx

I've noticed your voice is a lot more energetic than before

Here in Brazil ES44ACi are starting to appear, slowly, but they have already started to take over the main lines

This was interesting. Living in SoCal, I only notice passenger engines, but I definitely see many BNSF trains rolling through to San Diego and Chicago.

Same. These videos are fire

MUCH OF THE WORK OF PERFECTING THE GENERAL ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE TO THE DASH -8 LEVEL WAS DONE AT SANTA FE RR KANSAS CITY SHOP!! WHILE THERE I DID A LOT OF THIS WORK! GENERAL ELECTRIC, BUILT AT ERIE PENNSYLVANIA, PERFECTED AT ARGENTINE SHOP, KANSAS!! KEEP THEM ROLLING BROTHERS!! 👍👍

I love the GEVO’s and all here for it

Progressive Rail/EMD's SD70ACE T-4 is a nice locomotive. It had problems in its introduction but UP was its most loyal buyer. CSX had ten but returned them recently. The sales department at EMD must have given up on it. Maybe things will turn around and we could see more in the future.

Nice one!

Between the Gevo and the NViroMotive, it looks like the EPA has finally forced American railroads to do something new for the 21st century.

Great video

Savor the GEVO’s while you can. Like the SD40-2s, they aren’t gonna be around forever

😊 CSX also has AC powered variance of the ES44.DC known as the ES44A.H

0:11 buddy put NS 4000 (AC44C6M) in the video

Work on what became the GEVO engine started a lot earlier than most of us think, it shares a lot of similarities with the 6,000 horsepower 16 cylinder GE HDL engine (used in the infamously unsuccessful AC6000CW locomotive) and I think it could be argued that the GEVO is actually a strengthened and debugged HDL. GE might have claimed that the GEVO was an entirely new 'clean sheet' design, but if that's true the designers started out by laying that sheet across the HDL's blueprints and doing quite a bit of tracing. The Tier-IV GEVO engine is also different enough that it might be worthy of being called a separate design, its crankcase has been strengthened and is significantly heavier, along with the two-stage turbocharging system (one turbo exhausts into the other) and all the EGR and DPF smog control equipment. But I can understand why GE wanted to abandon the bad memories associated with the HDL and then continue to use the good GEVO name later on.

ya just yesterdays i saw a Heritage unit Gevo it was a on the road between saskatoon and north battelford SK (CA)

When I heard there is 7k of these things, I was mind blown. I think the GEVOS are growing on me because, they're really good on fuel.

5:00 Heading back to the US, the EPA was making stricter Tier 4 emissions requirements for American railroads, so GE delivered its first Tier 4 GEVOs to... Canadian National? :D (I assume for use on CNR's US divisions at first)

OK you did not bad but I just finished watching one and a half hour video about Southern Pacific 4449 AGS4 type locomotive built by the Lima locomotive works in Lima, Ohio she remained in service until 1959 when the southern Pacific retired all of its steam locomotives, and it was now a diesel railroad however, a group of people restored the G4 into its American freedom train colors in 1970 so I’m think you should do a video on that

I’ve given up trying to figure out 1 Gevo from another, all the same engine to me lol

I quite like the GEVO’s I will admit they are a little over produced but still like you said one day these things will meet their fate and the next big powerful locomotive will take over and they will be missed by many

Dang JEVOS are so common now that there are like 2 on every train

I am extremely curious about what will (inevitably) replace GEVOs

Can you do a video on SD70ACes? those are my favorite of the Freight Diesels

As much as people hate gevos and think there boring I think there really interesting machines, most people just look at the shell of the engine but there's just so much more under the hood and in the cab that people just don't look at

The GEVO will never be gone 6:47 it’ll be around for 30 more years!

Who else wishes the Burlington northern still existed solely because of the oaint

GEVOs aren't that bad tbh, but I HATE seeing BNSF run trains up and down Stevens Pass with multiple C4s, sometimes all C4s. They weren't built for going notch 8 up a 2.2% grade in the freezing snow on icy rails, they were built for 70 mph intermodal service in the warm Southwest desert. Not to mention their incredibly stupid new horsepower rating system changing some older ES44ACs to show as having 5100 horsepower. It's some really stupid system where if they're in notch 8 they can somehow access more horsepower or something, which is definitely possible but not a good idea long term.

Omori music, tf2 teferences, memes. I knew this was a good channel.

Not just mainline power anymore, I’ve seen plenty of them on locals and yard jobs

5:58 Where and when is that shot at/from? BNSF 539 has been in the Omaha/Lincoln area for a while, I actually caught it on Y-OMA101 today.

@AmtrakGuy365 can you make a next video that explain the Indonesian GE CM20EMP(cc 206) locomtive please

Ah yes my favorite type of locomotive interestingly

I know I've found a good train channel when Tommy Rossini is on the patron list.

"prime mover" refers to the diesel motor ONLY

i like to say that GEVOs are like Vectrons and TRAXX here on Europe, they are EVERYWHERE but they have reasons for being so widespread

Fun fact: Trains Magazine did a "Top 10 Locomotives that revolutionized America" list and the GEVO was the only locomotive from the 21st century.

Should do one on the SD70ACE

Now I kinda want something for the ACe series

Bruh they think locomotives produce more emissions, and they never use their logic realizing that there are more cars in the world than trains

Shawn is an ES44AC making him a GEVO and is proud to be one #GEVOs don't deserve to be old news

I don't think I've ever seen a transportation youtube channel have TF2 and Yakuza references lol

The gevo is my favorite type of locomotive because of how powerful, and efficient they are. So of course that's why they're often being used for pulling freight trains. I honestly can't find any reason not to like them. Their K5HL horns are great to hear on my favorite railroad CSX. Also my second favorite Norfolk Southern.💪🏻

As a friend once said, a big boy might look nice, but a GEVO can move a city

My best friend worked for General Electric in Erie pennsylvania. Unfortunately, these gevo's were notorious for many problems and continues on. I have two friends that work for two different railroads and they have General Electrics and they all say the same thing, not very reliable.

there's also 58319 variants of the gevo

EMD:THEIR COMING LOCK THE DOORS!

The ES44C4 has AC motors, not DC. Should probably fix that!

Great video awesome Gevo enjoy your day 😎🚂🫵

Honestly some fair points

In the 1800's everyone standardized on the 4-4-0. Now everyone standardized on the GEVO. History rhymes again. We have come full circle.