Atlas HO U30C Chessie System 3301 10 003 921 DCC/Sound
Built by General Electric between 1966 and 1976, the six-axle, 3000-h.p. U30C locomotive was General Electric’s alternative to EMD’s SD40 series. In that ten year time frame, GE built 600 U30C’s for a wide variety of operators. The largest customer was the BN, with 180 units compared to the US DOT, which purchased a single locomotive for their Pueblo test facility. Detroit Edison and Kaiser Steel might have been the most unique operators to purchase the U30 (DE receiving 11 and Kaiser with 5). The Kaiser Steel U30’s hauled ore trains from mine to mill in California’s Eagle Mountain, while the Detroit Edison locomotives were assigned unit train duties from the coal fields in western Pennsylvania to DTE’s generating station in Monroe, Michigan. By the late 80’s, most U30C’s had been retired, while a handful remained in operation for second hand operators.
