The GE U23B Diesel-electric locomotive was introduced by GE Transportation

GE Transportation Systems

GE Transportation, formerly known as GE Rail, is a division of General Electric. The organization manufactures equipment for the railroad, marine, mining, drilling and energy generation industries. It is based in Erie, Pennsylvania. Locomotives are assembled at the Erie plant, while engine...

 in 1968 as a medium horsepower roadswitcher, featuring a 12 cylinder

Cylinder (engine)

A cylinder is the central working part of a reciprocating engine or pump, the space in which a piston travels. Multiple cylinders are commonly arranged side by side in a bank, or engine block, which is typically cast from aluminum or cast iron before receiving precision machine work...

 FDL engine. It was one of the most successful models of the Universal Series

GE Universal Series locomotives

The GE Universal Series locomotives were diesel locomotives launched by GE in early 1956.Initially, there were nine U-series models: U4B, U6B, U9B, U9C, U12B, U12C, U18B, U18C and UD18B. They were designed to be readily adaptable to different track gauges for export markets. The U5B and U8B...

, with railroads ordering it from 1968 until 1977 when it was replaced by the B23-7

GE B23-7

The GE B23-7 is a diesel locomotive model that was offered first by GE in 1977, featuring a 12 cylinder engine. It is 61 ft 2 in long. It competed with the EMD GP38-2. General Electric also produced a variant, the BQ23-7, for the Seaboard Coast Line.Ten Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México...

. 481 units were built, including 16 exported to Peru.

Not many U23Bs still exist, but a few shortline and regional railroads such as the Georgia Central Railway

Georgia Central Railway

The Georgia Central Railway operates about of track from Macon, Georgia through Dublin, Georgia and Vidalia, Georgia to Savannah, Georgia. It also operates about of trackage between Savannah and Riceboro, Georgia, switching Interstate Paper LLC. It connects with CSX Transportation and the...

 still have several U23Bs in everyday service.

Original Owners

Railroad	Quantity	Numbers
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...	49	6300-6348
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...	30	2300-2329
Conrail Consolidated Rail Corporation The Consolidated Rail Corporation, commonly known as Conrail , was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeast U.S. between 1976 and 1999. The federal government created it to take over the potentially profitable lines of bankrupt carriers, including the Penn Central Transportation Company and...	10	2789-2798
Delaware and Hudson Railway Delaware and Hudson Railway The Delaware and Hudson Railway is a railroad that operates in the northeastern United States. Since 1991 it has been a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway, although CPR has assumed all operations and the D&H does not maintain any locomotives or rolling stock.It was formerly an important...	16	301-316
Ferrocarril del Pacífico Ferrocarril del Pacífico The Ferrocarril del Pacífico is a former railroad line of Mexico that operated from Benjamín Hill, Sonora to Guadalajara, Jalisco via Mazatlán, Sinaloa. It was absorbed into Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México in 1984....	10	537-546
Lehigh Valley Railroad Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of a number of railroads built in the northeastern United States primarily to haul anthracite coal.It was authorized April 21, 1846 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and incorporated September 20, 1847 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad...	12	501-512
Louisville and Nashville Railroad Louisville and Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.Chartered by the state of Kentucky in 1850, the L&N, as it was generally known, grew into one of the great success stories of American business...	90	2708-2772, 2800-2824
Milwaukee Road Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad The Milwaukee Road, officially the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until its merger into the Soo Line Railroad on January 1, 1986. The company went through several official names...	5	4800-4804
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad was incorporated May 23, 1870. In its earliest days the MKT was commonly referred to as "the K-T", which was its stock exchange symbol; this common designation soon evolved into "the Katy"....	3	350-352
Missouri Pacific Railroad Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , also known as the MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway , Texas and Pacific...	39	668-674, 2257-2288
Monon Railroad Monon Railroad The Monon Railroad , also known as the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway from 1897–1956, operated almost entirely within the state of Indiana...	8	601-608
Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México, was Mexico's state owned railroad company from 1938 to 1998, and prior to 1938 a major railroad controlled by the government that linked Mexico City to the major cities of Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Juárez on the U.S. border...	30	9100-9129
Penn Central Transportation	77	2700-2776
Southern Peru Copper	16	40-45, 50-59
Southern Railway	70	3900-3969
Texas Utilities	1	103
Western Pacific Railroad Western Pacific Railroad The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California...	15	2251-2265

External links

• Sarberenyi, Robert. GE U23B Original Owners