By Eric Berger
After lengthy military careers, a pair of recent U.S. Navy retirees are the newest members of a unique group of veterans in Connecticut. A common thread connecting these group members is that they are all General Electric 80-tonners. The entity assembling the fastest-growing fleet of this long-discontinued diesel model is the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat on Connecticut’s historic Valley Railroad.
USN 65-00359 and USN 65-00618 arrived by truck at the Connecticut railroad’s home base of Essex in March. Both were sold as surplus after being stored in good order since 2008 at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, near San Diego, following a switch to trucks. The new arrivals increase the size of the Essex 80-tonner fleet to seven, though one of them serves as a parts source. The two new units, however, vary from the rest internally in that they were rebuilt by Chrome Crankshaft with Caterpillar engines in the late 1980s. The rebuild also included new generators and air compressors, AAR control stands, and No. 26 air brakes. While preservation purists balk at such modifications, the greater availability of Caterpillar parts makes them a practical choice over siblings still equipped with the original Cummins engines.
USN 65-00618 is seen inside the Valley Railroad’s shop. Photo by Joe Cassineri.
The 65-00359 was ordered during the Korean War and built in April 1953, making it the newest unit in the fleet by one month. It initially served as Hawthorne Ammunition Depot 2 with two sister units in Hawthorne, Nev. All three were later reassigned to Seal Beach. The 65-00618 was reportedly built as U.S. Army 7393. It would spend time at Naval Weapons Station Crane in Indiana, before joining the former Hawthorne units at Seal Beach.
As its name implies, the emphasis at Essex is on the operation of its historic steam engines, but diesels are used on work trains and other runs. Beyond that, the diesels provide a significant history lesson of their own about the evolution of the GE center-cab switcher.
The 80-tonner is sometimes referred to as the bigger brother of the GE 44-tonner, but it is also the older brother, introduced as the first GE center cab design in 1936, four years before the first 44-tonner. It was described by Jerry Pinkepank in the Second Diesel Spotter’s Guide as “the nearest thing GE had to a standard industrial model in the 1935–1940 era,” which followed GE’s earlier box cab collaborations with Alco and Ingersoll Rand. The 80-tonner was arguably more successful as well, with a production total of 620, compared with just 386 44-tonners, though versions of the 80-tonner were available for 44 years while 44-tonner production lasted just 16 years.
