GE Dash 9-40C

The GE Dash 9-40C, also called the C40-9, was a 4,000 horsepower diesel-electric road locomotive built by GE Transportation Systems at Erie, Pennsylvania, in the first months of 1995. It used the 16-cylinder 7FDL prime mover and direct-current traction motors, and it sat just below the 4,400 horsepower Dash 9-44CW in the Dash 9 line. It kept the older standard cab and was the only Dash 9 model to do so, which together with its rooftop air conditioning units gave it the nickname Top Hat. Norfolk Southern bought all 125 units and asked for the standard cab on purpose, although federal rules led it to take the wide-cab C40-9W for later orders. From 2015 Norfolk Southern rebuilt the fleet with alternating-current traction as the AC44C6M, and the last unrebuilt unit was retired in 2018. The cab of one unit survives as a switcher at the GE plant in Erie.