Hello folks!
I'm back with another review today, featuring a fairly unusual prototype.
So let's get into it!
GE U25B History: The U25B, introduced in 1959, would be the first diesel-electric road switcher produced independently by General Electric for the U.S. market, though they had partnered with ALCo (American Locomotive Co) on previous locomotive projects, providing design, production and marketing while in this arrangement, which was called "ALCo-GE". GE had introduced the "Universal" series in 1956, but only for the export market at first. In 1953 the ALCo-GE consortium would be dissolved, and GE would begin its independent locomotive production.
The U25B would be powered by a GE FDL-16 diesel prime mover, putting 2,500hp to two 2-axle trucks, hence the name: U for Universal, 25 for 2,500hp, and B for the truck arrangement (2 axle trucks being a B arrangement as recognized by the American Association of Railroads, or AAR). They were the highest horsepower 4 axle diesel at the time in the U.S., beating out the competing EMD GP20 at 2,000hp and the ALCo RS27 at 2,400hp. From April 1959 to February 1966, GE would produce 478 U25B units in total, for many railroads.
The Universal series in general would prove troublesome, but would serve to get GE solidly in the locomotive building game, which they would eventually come to dominate.
The U25B's longevity would not be particularly impressive, as most were retired and scrapped by the late 80's at the very latest. There were a couple rebuild attempts, namely the U25BE by the Southern Pacific, and the TE70-4S by Morrison-Knudsen, which consisted of 6 locomotives altogether, none of which proved successful.
Thankfully, 6 U25B units are preserved in various places, with one being operational.
As a side note, a very common nickname for the Universal series was "U-Boat". Not sure how that moniker came about, but there it is.
GN 2505 History: Great Northern 2505 was built in April of 1964, and would haul freight around the GN system until the Burlington Northern mergers, at which point it became BN 5405. It would pull freight around the BN system until retirement in May of 1981. At some point after its retirement it was scrapped.
Box info.
Rocky the mountain goat, GN's mascot.
Good: The paint is well applied, with no smudges or chips, and the lettering and stickers all look nice as well.
The details are very impressive, with an abundance of well made small details. The overall construction quality was good, and the model had a solid and sturdy feel to it. Speaking of sturdy and solid, the weight came in at 15.2oz, which is pretty average.
It operates extremely well, with no issues whatsoever. The DCC all works, the sounds are great, and the amount and quality of the lighting stood out as particularly impressive as well.
Bad: The rear fireman's side footboard was loose in the box - it wasn't actually broken, so was a quick and easy glue job to fix. Though having to repair a model straight out of the box is not ideal, I'd rather have a simple loose part than something actually broken. Also, the paint seems like it could've been a little glossier - this seems like a hard thing for model manufacturers to get right, as I've noticed it on lots of models from various manufacturers, to varying degrees, but that doesn't make it any better.
Overall: It's a really nice model. Looks great, sounds great, runs great. Also, the actual build quality (other than the footboard) is excellent.
As always, thanks for looking!
Nice looking loco with a cool mascot