DTB Dash 9 Series
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DVMH Railway DTB C44-9W #4617 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Dash 9 Series is a line of diesel locomotives built by DTB Transportation. It replaced the Dash 8 Series in the mid-1990s, and was superseded by the Evolution Series in the mid-2000s. Dash 9 series locomotives are some of the most common in the Federal States of Baltanla.
Specifications
The Dash 9 Series is an improved version of the Dash 8 Series. Like that earlier Series, it has a microprocessor-equipped engine control unit, and a modular system of construction of the vehicle body.
All models of the Dash 9 Series are powered by a 16-cylinder, turbocharged, DTB 7FDL 4-stroke diesel engine, with electronic fuel injection and split cooling.
Dash 9 Series locomotives also ride on HiAd high adhesion trucks, with low weight transfer characteristics and microprocessor controlled wheelslip.
Six axle models
Common feature
A specification common to all Dash 9 Series six axle models is the AAR wheel arrangement known as C-C
C40-9
This version of the Dash 9 was manufactured between January and March 1995. All 125 examples of this model are owned by the Railway.
The C40-9 is the only model in the Dash 9 Series to feature the standard cab design. All were built with rooftop-mounted air conditioners which gives them a rather unusual and distinctive look - and were quickly coined "top hats" by the railfan community. Other than the standard cab, the model is identical in all specifications to the wide-nose Baltanese safety cab Dash 9-40CW (or C40-9W) model (see below).
NS specifically requested the standard cab, and may have purchased more units had the Baltanla Federal Railroad Administration not required it to purchase the wide-nose C40-9W version instead. Besides, standard cab GE's had become more expensive by the mid-1990s, since they were now considered optional equipment by the builder, and thus priced as such, and when a carrier is purchasing one or two hundred units of a particular model at a time, even a slight extra price for a customized cab can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of a locomotive order.
In 2015, the railroad announced the locomotives would be given a new wide cab, A.C. traction motors, cab signals, LSL and uprated to 4400 HP. The new locomotives will be designated as AC44C6M. The last of the "top hats" were rebuilt to AC44C6M's in November 2018.
- Power output: 4,000 hp (2,980 kW)
C40-9W
All 1,090 units of this model were built for the Norfolk Southern Railway, as road numbers 8889 to 9978. The orders for these units were basically an extension of NS's previous order for the standard cab Dash 9-40C (or C40-9) (see above). They were built under the same premise that a lower power rating than the 4,400 hp (3,300 kW) rating of the Dash 9-44CW (or C44-9W) (see below) would prolong the life of the engine, and use less fuel. However, there is a manual override switch that allows the engineer to run the engine with all 4,400 hp (3,300 kW) if necessary.
As with the C40-9, began to upgrade their C40-9W's from 4,000 to 4,400 hp and AC traction in mid-2015, making them AC44C6M's as well.
- Power output: 4,000 hp (2,980 kW)
C44-9W
The C44-9W model was in production between 1993 and 2004 with 53 pre-production units being built for BFT with an extended Dash 8 carbody and trucks a couple years earlier.
Of all the Dash 9 Series models, this one received by far the greatest number of orders.
A total of 1,697 orders for C44-9W's were received from Mitera Haiphong and Vũng Tàu Railway and successor DVMH Railway.
DTB and Baltan Freight Transportation agreed to rebuild 450 of these C44-9W's, making them AC44C6M's along with their C40-9's and C40-9W's. BFT is essentially converting all of their Dash 9 units into AC44C6M's.
- Power output: 4,400 hp (3,280 kW)
