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Caption: Zambia Railways operates a 3'6" (1067 mm) gauge railway network in their south-central African country, which connects with railways of bordering nations Zimbabawe and Malawi. They bought 15 units of export locomotive model GT36CU-MP, numbered 01-601 to 01-615, which were built at the GM Diesel Division Plant in London ON in October and November 1992.
The locomotives are powered by an EMD V 16-645F3B diesel rated at 3500 HP, similar to the SD50. The CU-MP suffix is "C" for 3 powered-axle trucks, U for universal (multi-gauge) traction motors, and MP for microprocessor controlled electronics.
The picture shows new unit 01-603 ahead of 01-604 outside the GM DD London plant, on special track (possibly with multiple rails to support various gauges). A person inside the fence appears to be inspecting something. Location mapped is approximate.
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2 questions:
1. On the original trucks, or on standard gauge trucks?
2. Someone in the second unit? Looks like it.
3. Good to see pics from here, as rare as they are and that people still haven’t forgotten my request.
1) My guess was they are 3′ 6″ trucks. It is possible, truck-mounted sandboxes are visible. Definitely locomotive trucks, not shop trucks.
2) Yes someone is in the cab of 2nd unit, have a picture of 01-604 that shows him clearly.
3) I never saw (or forget) your request !
I made the request a long time ago. Seeing that stuff like this is very rare (or is it?).
Gloomy day too.
Thanks for the comments. Hard to know what pictures other people have, and if/when they might share. This one seems pretty rare to me. I still have lots of negatives to scan, but no more of this one. Each submission is over an hour’s work (scan, photoshop, caption, etc). Can’t do much about the weather in 1994 ! Lack of images of other-gauge locos on the GM test track suggest they only ever had other-gauge trucks.