GE Dash 7 Series

The Dash 7 Series is a family of diesel-electric freight locomotive models built by GE Transportation. Introduced in the mid-1970s, it replaced the Universal Series and was later superseded by the Dash 8 Series in the mid-1980s. GE began production in 1976 to answer EMD's GP30 and Dash 2, and about 2,800 had been built when production ceased in 1985, roughly the same as the whole Universal Series. All models use a 12-cylinder or 16-cylinder turbocharged GE 7FDL four-stroke diesel engine carried over from the Universal Series, with speed-based adhesion control and direct current traction motors. Names follow wheel arrangement and power, so a B30-7 is a B-B unit of 3,000 horsepower.