Georgia Road Transportation

The 25M Program proved to be one of the longest running rebuild projects commissioned by Georgia Road. Beginning with four axles rebuilds to add medium horsepower to Intermodal pools, the Program added six axle units midway in production for yard and transfer service. Georgia Road worked through a substantial fleet of ex SOU SD24 and ex BN SD9 units. The SD25M units proved very reliable, and the standardization of parts reduced parts inventories and facilitated reasonable repair times for breakdowns. Units with major wreck damage or severe breakdowns simply recycled through the Program again.

The SD25M units utilizing SD35 cores had their high short hood noses chopped, air reservoir moved to the roof and new electrical and primemover installation similar to the those created by the SD24 cores. This included clean cab 26L braking, Dash -2 electrical cabinet, and a 645 series 12-cylinder turbocharged primemover Completed units were added to the yard, terminal and switching pools, mixing with the earlier SD24 core models indiscriminately. Georgia Road did change the number series so shop personnel could plan for the nuances created by using the first generation SD24 core and the early second generation SD35 core. As this writing, the 25M Program continues, but production numbers have decreased recently.