So, while pouring through the CRHS's archives I came across this

[Ed Kapuscinski]

One of the numerous things I do in service of Big Blue is go through and catalog donations as they come in.

I recently opened up a blue folder in one of the boxes and came across this.

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That, my friends, is the concept artwork for... a GE C60-8W.

That's right. A 6000hp, electric, widecab Dash 8.

GE actually made a pretty fleshed out proposal to Conrail about it in the late 70s before they pulled the plug on electric freight operations.

Pretty nuts, eh?

Definitely nuts enough to warrant a future article in the Conrail Quarterly. But I guarantee it's wouldn't be the craziest thing you read in the CQ this year.

[Point353]

Besides the obvious two pantagraphs and walkways along the sides, how much different would this proposal have been from the E60 locos that GE built for the Black Mesa & Lake Powell?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Besides the obvious two pantagraphs and walkways along the sides, how much different would this proposal have been from the E60 locos that GE built for the Black Mesa & Lake Powell?

That is a very good question. I think they would've been similar but with Dash 8 electronics. The actual packet has a ton of additional info in it about the technical specifications of the electrical systems in the engine. Not being familiar with the way the E60 worked I wouldn't really know how they'd differ but I get the impression there would indeed be some worthwhile internal differences.

[Joetrain59]

Ed, interesting reflection from overhead light. Right where panto hits the wire.
 That's one hell of an arc!! Lol.
 Joe D