GE BQ23-7

The GE BQ23-7 was a diesel locomotive that General Electric built between 1978 and 1979 as a variant of the B23-7, the Q standing for crew quarters. It was mechanically identical to a regular B23-7 but had an enlarged operating cab to house the train crew, making a case for eliminating the caboose from the rear of freight trains. Only ten were built, all for the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad as numbers 5130 to 5139. Following a practice dating back to the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line U30Bs of 1967, they rode on reconditioned Blomberg trucks from EMD trade-ins. CSX inherited them and ran them into the early 2000s, and all were scrapped in 2001.