GE U23B

Delaware & Hudson U23B #2312 was used on the Preamble Express in 1974.

The GE U23B Diesel-electric locomotive was introduced by GE Transportation in 1968 as a medium horsepower roadswitcher, featuring a 12 cylinder FDL engine. It was one of the most successful models of the Universal Series, with railroads ordering it from August 1968 until June 1977 when it was replaced by the B23-7. 481 units were built, including 16 exported to Peru.

The railroads which used these diesels are the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, Conrail the Delaware and Hudson Railway, Western Pacific Railroad, Texas Utilities, Southern Railway, Ferrocarril del Pacífico, Lehigh Valley Railroad, Louisville and Nashville Railroad, Milwaukee Road, Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, Missouri Pacific Railroad, Monon Railroad, Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México, Penn Central Transportation, and the Southern Peru Copper.

The Huntsville and Madison County Railroad Authority in Huntsville, AL, operates perhaps one of the last U23B's used in daily freight service, as of October 2015.

Not many of the U23Bs still exist today, but there are a few shortline and regional railroads still use them in everyday service.

Trivia

• Delaware & Hudson #2312 was used on the Preamble Express in 1974. No. 2312 was Scrapped in 1988.
• The Georgia Central Railway was one of the last U23B holdouts, rostering almost all of the remaining ex Southern Railway (U.S.) high short hood U23Bs.
• The Georgia Central as of July 2015 has all of its U23Bs off of the roster with the 3965 going to the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum in Oak Ridge, TN. Another U23B, CSX 9553, former L&N 2817, is preserved at the museum and is operable.

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