Old Reliability
HMCR #9554 is a GE U23B originally built as L&N #2800 in December of 1974. The Louisville and Nashville picked up 90 U23Bs between 1973 and 1975 making it the largest owner of the model. The engine changed owners twice in the 1980s as the L&N merged into the Seaboard System 1982 and reorganized into CSX Transportation in 1986. By the mid-1990s, it was relegated to MOW service and renumbered #9554, a number it would keep for the rest of its career.
In 2000, CSX sold five of its MOW U23Bs, including #9554, to the Tishomingo Railway in Mississippi. The TISH sold #9553 and #9554 to Vintage Locomotives (VLIX) in 2008 and were sent up to the SARM at Oak Ridge; the remaining three TISH U23Bs were scrapped. The HMCR picked up the #9554 in 2015 making it the sixth owner of #9554 since it was built in 1974. It is one of the last GE U23Bs in revenue service anywhere.
Old Reliability
HMCR #9554 is a GE U23B originally built as L&N #2800 in December of 1974. The Louisville and Nashville picked up 90 U23Bs between 1973 and 1975 making it the largest owner of the model. The engine changed owners twice in the 1980s as the L&N merged into the Seaboard System 1982 and reorganized into CSX Transportation in 1986. By the mid-1990s, it was relegated to MOW service and renumbered #9554, a number it would keep for the rest of its career.
In 2000, CSX sold five of its MOW U23Bs, including #9554, to the Tishomingo Railway in Mississippi. The TISH sold #9553 and #9554 to Vintage Locomotives (VLIX) in 2008 and were sent up to the SARM at Oak Ridge; the remaining three TISH U23Bs were scrapped. The HMCR picked up the #9554 in 2015 making it the sixth owner of #9554 since it was built in 1974. It is one of the last GE U23Bs in revenue service anywhere.