I worked for the ocean carrier who transported the first batch from Newport News to China starting in 1984. One of them was dropped in the water deliberately on Nov. 1, 1984 to keep the ship from capsizing after a mechanical failure. This unit was dubbed "Capt. Nemo" by a GE staffer. Of course joking was allowed since no one was hurt. The first batch totaled 220 plus Capt. Nemo in pieces. 75 of the first 200 were shipped without bogies. The Chinese would construct the bogies in China for thes units from kits. The second batch was 200, carried by another steamship company. The wheelsets were a rim and tire design like a steam loco. The "tires" were painted white with FRA approval.
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Interesting story! I saw some of the original order laying over in Richmond's Fulton Yard on their way to Newport News. At the time, I never thought I would be fortunate to see them in China working side by side with QJs of almost the same age! While in China I was told that the GEs were not MU capable with this being a cost saving option. At the time it was deemed cheaper to man a second loco. Is there truth to this? It may well have been cheaper to man additional units back then but those days are likely over now in the new China.
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I don't know about MU capability. All the photos of these locos that I have seen in the RP database are of single units. If you look closely at your photo you can see the jacking pads. Immediately above the pad is an indentation in the frame with a little splotch of yellow paint. During manufacture, GE would start with the frame upside down. At some point they would bolt on lifting pads into the holes in that indentation to flip the frame right side up. We needed additional places to attach lashing wires on the locos for sea transport. When we saw the open bolt holes we asked GE if we could fabricate plates that could be bolted on there to provide more lashing points. GE said ok, as they would normally just welded a plate over the holes. You can still see these plates being used today on GE locos for export. http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=414983&nseq=2&favsearch=1
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