BNSF train Q-PEALAC1-29A passes through Blue Cut as it descends Cajon Pass. Power for this intermodal train, heading to Los Angeles from Pearland, Texas, is Norfolk Southern AC44C6M 4000, BNSF ET44C4 3853 and BNSF Dash 9-44CW 5102. Norfolk Southern Railway 4000 was the first of the railroad’s AC44C6M locomotives. As such, it and 4001 were painted in a special blue and gray paint scheme (NS 4001 was wrecked at McVeytown PA on April 14, 2017, but was repaired and returned to service), with the rest in standard NS black and white. Beginning in September 2015, NS began a program to rebuild their Dash 9-40Cs at GE, American Motive Power, Inc., and Norfolk Southern's own Juniata and Roanoke Shops. The AC44C6M retains the 16-cylinder 7FDL-16 prime mover used in the core locomotive prior to rebuilding, but features GE's alternating current 5GEB13B7 traction motors. Externally, the rebuilds have received new wide-nosed cabs and a new front hood section of the same design as on the ES44AC, while retaining the underframe and engine and radiator compartments of the original Dash 9 units. Internally, AC44C6M features a new under-floor air conditioner, cab signals, LSL, DPU systems, PTC, and ECP braking ability, a significant technological improvement from the GE Dash 9-40C units. This program rebuilt 124 of the NS’s Dash 9-40Cs, numbered 8764–8888 (excluding 8798, which was wrecked in 2018), renumbering them to NS 4000-4124. These rebuilds were completed in 2018, at which point the NS then began rebuilding and renumbering their Dash 9-40CWs (8889-9978) into AC44C6Ms 4125-4400 as well. (Cajon Pass, California – November 2, 2021)
