2050 Series

GP33ECO

The Eastern Gateway Railway went through a major upgrade of its roster in the 2000s, replacing or rebuilding most of its start-up power that consisted of first and early second generation ex-ICG GP Units. Coal, unit and aggregate power was upgraded from a gaggle of 40 series units to SD70ACU, SD70MACe and SD75ACe units and road switching power gave way to EMD 710 Rebuilds produced at Progress Rail in Muncie, Indiana. By standardizing the road switcher fleet on the 710ECO, savings were realized in fuel and maintenance.

All of the units were set up as Road Slug Control Units or “mothers” for a group of ex-CSX Road Slugs originally built by nearby VMV in Paducah. Most notably, the first “mother-slug” sets used the former NRE Genset cores purchased in the mid-1990s. The NRE genset locomotives never lived up to hype and expectations, and when “green initiative” subsidies ended with the first trump administration they were stored unserviceable. With the decision to replace most road switching locomotives with GP33ECO rebuild mated with slugs, the idea was to utilize the relatively new NRE cores as the first batch of slugs. Four axle hood unit slugs were acquired to fill out the roster.