Talk:GE Universal Series

Export models
Did the "Universal Series" name apply only to export locomotives? Biscuittin (talk) 15:05, 3 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Short answer, yes. The domestic US locomotives are better known as U-Boats. 111.94.129.133 (talk) 10:57, 4 December 2022 (UTC)
 * "U-boat" is a railfan nickname, not GE's designation of these locomotives. This page appears to be the only one on Wikipedia that claims that the "Universal Series" name only applied to export locomotives. The GE diesel locomotives template lists all the domestic models (U28B, U30B, etc.) under "Universal Series". The U25B page strongly implies that loco was the first Universal Series model for the domestic market. The U30C page talks about U30Cs being part of "a rebuild program [for] older Universal Series locomotives". The U36B was "the last GE high-horsepower universal series locomotive" and "the most powerful of the four-axle universal series." The Dash-7s "replaced the Universal Series in the mid-1970s" and were powered by a "diesel engine carried over from the Universal Series". The Dash-7's "predecessor [was] the Universal Series". Dricherby (talk) 08:24, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

Confusing
Article lists the U18B as being one of the initial members of this series in the late '50's, but the U18B article says it was built starting in 1973. Wuh Wuz  Dat  17:31, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Missing members of this series
Why are the U25B, U25C, U28B, U28C, U30B, U30C, U33B, U33C, U36B, U36C, and U23C not mentioned as being part of this series? Wuh Wuz  Dat  17:34, 8 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Because this series refers to the export locomotive models, rather than the US domestic model. I suggest keeping them separate to prevent confusion. 111.94.129.133 (talk) 19:30, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
 * This page is the only one on Wikipedia that claims that the domestic models were not part of the Universal Series (see my comment above in under Export models). Do you have a citation for the claim that the "Universal Series" name was export-only? Dricherby (talk) 08:28, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

The successful launch of the Universal Series diesel locomotives as export units by GE directly led to the demise of ALCO. There were about 400 Universal Series diesels built for export before the first U25B was sold. Read all about the Pony Truck Affair in the article about the GE U18C1 built in 1959-1960. --SSW9389 03:00, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Origins of the FDL Engine
There is serious discussion on this linked page of the origins of GE's FDL engine and the early Universal Series locomotives. See http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=42450 --SSW9389 12:28, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Why was the U18C article removed?
Quite recently, I noticed that the english U18C article was removed. I was trying to find the article, yet It seems to be deleted, could anyone shed some light on why this is the case? Re57k (talk) 12:15, 7 January 2021 (UTC)