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Kaiser Steel GE U30C Freight Locomotive [Legacy G2]

General Electric U30C



By the late 50's steam locomotives were well on their way out. The stronger, more efficient, and much more versatile and capable Diesel Electric locomotives had stolen the scene. Some brands like Baldwin adapted for a short time through mergers, One large brand named ALCO partnered with GE for their new diesel locomotives. None of these brands could compete with the powerful merger between the Electromotive Corporation and General Motors, The GM Electromotive Division, also known as EMD. EMD dominated the commercial locomotive market with no real sizeable competition for any of the larger railroads. That was until GE ended their partnership with Alco and went out to produce their own line of locomotives.

The U30C was one of many locomotives to come out of General Electric's Universal Series of locomotives. These universal series locomotives, commonly referred to as "Uboats", were launched in 1956 and continued to be made and upgraded to the Dash-7 series until they were replaced by the Dash-8 series. The concept of the Universal series was to create a locomotive that was easy to manufacture into different railroad gauges for differing countries, hence the name "universal". They were known for their unusual yet familiar shape along with the distinct "guzzle" sound created by the prime mover. The Universal series was GE's first real launch into the locomotive market without their old partners ALCO. Although they were no rival to the Giant EMD, they saw great sales and useage until most were either sold or scrapped. GE quickly gained the title of EMD's biggest competitor, knocking ALCO down to 3rd place. Despite their commercial success they were still inferior to the EMD locomotives, mostly due to reliability issues and lower performance. Locomotives like the U30C were still viable options for railways who could not get their hands on the newest EMD 6 axle locomotive, the SD40. Kaiser steel was looking to replace their aging Baldwin RS12 locomotives with something newer, and purchased 5 new U30C locomotives for their Eagle Mountain railroad that served their iron mines and steel mills in the Eagle Mountain region. Numbered 1030-1034, these U30Cs reliably hauled ore from the mine until it's shut down, then continued to run emptying the mine's reserves until 1986. The locomotives, which were still in great condition thanks to the maintenance team, were stored and left to rot until they were all scrapped in early 90's. The railroad shut down and all that remains is unmaintained track and a caboose. The Original RS12 locomotives were sold, 2 of them went to the Kaiser Bauxite operation in St. Ann Jamaica, but were Phased out by 4 SD38 locomotives (now 3 SD38s thanks to a storm plus an additional GP40). Their husks remain but probably will never run again. Kaiser Steel now remains mostly a memory from a long gone empire. Their bright red locomotives remain as a memorable feature.


this U30C replica sports a 6 cylinder modular engine and plenty of tractive effort. It's engine slave systems are compatible with all of my prior locomotives. it is oriented slightly differently than my EMD locomotives since it is not an EMD at all. Despite this operation is near identical. And as always, a template locomotive will be linked for those that like to get creative with liveries.



Startup- flip on all breakers in the cab and go down the starboard side of the locomotive to find the panels that can be opened. Behind this is the starter. This is where you start up and shut down the locomotive. Power it up and it's ready
to use.

Basic operation- The reverser lever decides locomotive direction. push the lever forward to go forward and pull it back to invert the direction. Pulling back the throttle lever will throttle up the engine and increase the power going to the
electric motors. Watch for wheel slippage which may occur from either throttling up too fast or from pulling more than it can handle. Adding on more locomotives to the train will increase pulling power and max speed of the train when
pulling, which is a perfect Segway to,

Slave Systems- The slave computer is how the locomotive communicates with other locomotives in the train. It can send/receive information from the two connectors and also via radio signal. When setting up a locomotive to be a follower press, "enable slave mode" (make sure the reverser is forward). Now the locomotive will be looking to receive information regarding braking, throttle, and direction from the front connector by default. The "receive from radio" and "receive from rear connector" buttons will change where the locomotive gains it's directions from. Make sure if using radio controls that all locomotives are on the same frequency or else they wont receive/send information to other locomotives in the train. If the locomotive's front is facing in the opposite direction of the lead locomotive, press "invert direction". Now all locomotives in the train should follow the directions of the lead locomotive.