With the entry of the United States into World War II, and wartime emergency orders from the U.S. By 1941 the design had become popular and evolved from a stubby box cab into an equally stubby end cab locomotive of 25 tons. Starting in 1938, General Electric began making a small 23-ton box cab diesel, mainly for use by industrial operations. Built in 1942, the only real difference between this prototype and this model is its angled side steps versus the straight steps on PIKO’s G scale I-B2 version. A number of them are still in service today, mainly at tourist railroads or museums, but some are still diligently working for industrial owners like grain elevators, a testament to their functional design and longevity.Īn example very similar to PIKO’s “Blue Goose,” GE’s I-B1 style 25-ton diesel resides at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Whether it was in switching service at an industrial plant, as a main line railroad’s repair shop mule, or as the primary road power for a mining or sugar plantation railway in some exotic foreign locale, you could find GE locomotives such as this little 0-4-0 most any place.
For a prototype, they would have been hard pressed to choose a better locomotive to make, since this one represents what is likely the most widely produced industrial diesel ever made in the U.S., with production spanning more than 35 years. PIKO recently released an all new model in G scale of a General Electric (GE) diesel locomotive to complement its growing line of U.S.
Review by Jeff Saxton/photos by David Otte
25 Tons of Fun! Piko’s GE Switcher in G Scale
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