The GE AC4400CW, sometimes referred as "AC44CW", is a diesel-electric locomotive that was built by GE Transportation Systems between 1993 and 2004. It is similar to the Dash 9-44CW, but uses AC traction motors instead of DC, with a separate inverter per motor. 3,018 units were built for North American railroads over an 11-year production and 540 AC44i units for the Brazilian railroads. In 2005, all Class I freight railroads except

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

and Canadian National owned at least one AC4400CW.

ordered the very similar C40-9Ws, although NS would later acquire 36 former CEFX AC4400CWs in August 2023. As a result of more stringent emissions requirements that came into effect in January 2005, GE no longer offers the AC4400CW, replacing it with the ES44AC.

Design variations

The AC4400CW was the first GE locomotive to offer an optional self-steering truck design, intended to increase adhesion and reduce wear on the railhead. This option was specified by

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

, Cartier Railway,

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

for their units 201-599, Ferromex, Ferrosur, and

Kansas City Southern Railway The Kansas City Southern Railway Company is an American Class I railroad. Founded in 1887, it operated in 10 Midwestern United States, Midwestern and Southeastern United States, Southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Ark ...

. The other railroads still used the hi-ad truck design CSX ordered many of its AC4400CW locomotives with extra weight to increase tractive effort. These same units were also modified in 2006-2007 with a "high tractive effort" software upgrade and redesignated CW44AH.

Rebuilds

In 2017,

Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

(now

Canadian Pacific Kansas City Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, Trade name, doing business as CPKC (known as Canadian Pacific Railway Limited until 2023), is a Canadian railway holding company. Through its primary operating railroad subsidiaries, Canadian Pacific Railw ...

) requested that

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

modernize 30 of its 9500 and 9600-series AC4400CW units. The original units had the original front cab completely removed and upgraded to current GE standards with upgraded electrical systems including PTC and FTO systems. Other improvements GE has made include up to 10 percent

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency (or fuel economy) is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical energy, chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or Mechanical work, w ...

gains, 40 percent increase in reliability and 50 percent increase in haulage ability. The units were subsequently placed into service with the designation AC4400CWM (for Modernized). The first batch of rebuilds (8100–8129) also had their original Steerable trucks replaced with GEs High Adhesion trucks, where later batches each individual engine kept the trucks they already had. The following year Canadian Pacific asked GE to similarly rebuild several more batches for a total of 110 locomotives. The second order (8130–8144) retains their steerable trucks. The third batch (8000–8064) will feature an Evolution Series sized fuel tank and radial trucks. In 2019 a fourth batch of rebuilds happened, 8145–8160 and 8064–8080 from the 95/9600-series. In 2021 the 8500 series is slated to be rebuilt as 8201–8280 and the 8100-series be completed. The

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

(UP) ordered many of their AC4400CWs with Controlled Tractive Effort software, giving them the designation of C44ACCTE. This software package is now standard on a portion of their ES44ACs as well. CTE limits tractive effort to mimic TE level of Dash series locomotives. In late 2023, they will all be rebuilt into C44ACMs. In 2018, UP placed a small order for 20 rebuilds from GE of their AC4460CW fleet and later announced that they would be upgrading 1,000 of their AC4460CWs and AC44s into the new C44ACM class over the next 15 years. Unlike CP, the original 20 rebuilds did not receive a new crew cab.

also placed orders to rebuild their large AC4400CW fleet. An initial batch of 10 AC4400CWs were rebuilt at Wabtec's Erie,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

facility, with 40 more to follow. CSX continued the program and had received a total of 260 rebuilt locomotives by 2024. A final order has been placed to rebuild the remaining 200 plus locomotives and will be completed from 2024-2028. The rebuilds are numbered in the 7000-7600 series and CSX is referring to them as CM44ACs and CM44AHs. NS recently acquired 36 of these locomotives from CEFX in June 2023. They are currently being patched for starting service on the roster. These units will be rebuilt to AC44C6M locomotives (similar to the ones from the Dash 9 locomotives) at the

Wabtec Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation, commonly known as Wabtec, is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower in 1999. It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Wab ...

locomotive plant in Fort Worth, TX. The first unit, NS 3980, was the first unit to be rebuilt into an AC44C6M and it's undergoing testing at the Wabtec facility. NS planned to rebuild 25 of the 36 of these units, but they failed to be delivered to NS. They were sold to

then to FXE.

Operators

AC4400CW owners and operators past and present include:

In popular culture

The plot of the movie ''Unstoppable'' required

Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, producer, and director. Known for his dramatic roles Denzel Washington on screen and stage, on stage and screen, Washington has received List of awards and nominations ...

and Chris Pine to climb aboard the lead locomotive of a runaway freight train. To film the movie, four Canadian Pacific AC4400CW locomotives (Nos. 9777, 9758, 9782, and 9751), were repainted as two fictional "Allegheny and West Virginia Railroad" locomotives (Nos. 777 (nicknamed "Triple 7") and 767). 9777 and 9782 were painted as 777, while 9758 and 9751 were painted as 767.

References

{{GE diesels Diesel–electric locomotives of the United States General Electric locomotives C-C locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1993 Freight locomotives Standard-gauge locomotives of Canada Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States Standard-gauge locomotives of Mexico Diesel–electric locomotives of Canada Diesel–electric locomotives of Mexico Canadian Pacific Railway locomotives Chicago and North Western Railway locomotives Southern Pacific Railroad locomotives Union Pacific Railroad locomotives