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Yesterday, CSX Corp. announced it recently partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Regional Planning Commission in New Orleans to jointly fund the retrofit of a GenSet ultra-low-emission locomotive. Housed at CSX’s Gentilly Yard in New Orleans, the GenSet is designed to reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent, and nitrous oxide and particulate matter emissions by more than 80 percent compared with a conventional switcher.

The retrofit process called for replacing the locomotive’s traditional single diesel engine with three small diesel engines. In addition, monitoring technology was implemented so the engines go into “sleep” mode after a period of inactivity to conserve fuel and reduce emissions, CSX officials said in a prepared statement.

The retrofit was partially funded through a grant awarded to the Regional Planning Commission via the EPA’s National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program, which is part of the 2005 Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA). CSX covered the remainder.
 
“This joint effort is a great example of public and private organizations working together to serve our communities,” said Carl Gerhardstein, CSX’s assistant vice president of environmental systems and sustainability. “This locomotive will contribute to our newly announced goal to reduce the company’s greenhouse-gas emissions intensity by 6 to 8 percent by 2020.”
 
The Gentilly Yard locomotive is one of three recently completed, DERA-funded GenSet retrofits, and one of more than 30 GenSets operated by CSX.