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During a recent parallel pull test at the Port of Los Angeles, National Railway Equipment Co.’s (NREC) 1,400-horsepower N-ViroMotive™ Gen-Set locomotive matched the performance of a six-axle SD18 switch engine, NREC said. The environmentally friendly “Generator-Set” N-ViroMotive locomotive has 400 less horsepower, and two fewer axles and traction motors than the SD18.

The test called for a new N-ViroMotive 2GS-14B Gen-Set switcher and conventional six-axle SD18 locomotive to pull a 126-unit double-stack container train weighing 6,215 tons. The train moved 1.8 miles from the Terminal Island dock through a series of eight-degree curves and switches, up a final ascending grade measuring more than 1 percent, and over a bridge before reaching a Long Beach, Calif., switch.

The test marked the first time a four-axle Gen-Set switcher has been measured against the pulling power of a higher horsepower, six-axle locomotive, NREC said. Pacific Harbor Line Inc. officials, who observed the test, believed the Gen-Set held the rail well and did not encounter wheel slip, according to the locomotive builder.