Bachmann - 61356 - Locomotive, Diesel, GE B23-7 - CSX Transportation - 5542

Model Information: Features:
- All metal chassis, with split-frame.
- Fuel tank is painted onto the chassis.
- Closed-sided 3-poler motor, without flywheels.
- All wheels provide pickup (no traction tires) and are geared.
- Directional lighting (LEDs).
- Dummy knuckle couplers, body-mounted.
- Blackened and low-profile wheels .

DCC Information: There is no drop-in decoder for this model. However it is equipped with a printed-circuit board for the lights on which contacts are provided for DCC wiring. A removable weight offers some room to host a wired DCC decoder.
So not a DCC-Ready model, but DCC-Friendly certainly with our classification.
An example of installation of a wired decoder in a very similar Bachmann locomotive of the same vintage can be found on Brad Myers' N scale DCC Decoder Installs website.

Prototype History: The GE B23-7 is a diesel locomotive model that was first offered by GE in late 1977. Featuring a smaller 12 cylinder version of the FDL engine, it is the successor to GE's U23B produced from early 1968 to mid 1977, but at 62 ft 2 in (18.95 m) long is exactly 2 ft 0 in (0.61 m). longer. It competed with the very successful EMD GP38-2. General Electric also produced a variant, the BQ23-7, no.5130-5139, for the Seaboard Coast Line. A total of 537 B23-7's were built for 9 U.S. customers and 2 Mexican customers.

A B23-7A is a 12-cylinder B23-7 with horsepower boosted to 250 per cylinder or 3,000 horsepower. In 1980 the Missouri Pacific ordered three B23-7A's (#'s 4667-4669, later UP #'s 257-259) and tested them system-wide. The result was the GE model B30-7A, B30-7 with a 12-cylinder FDL prime mover. They were not renumbered into the B30-7A series on the MP because they lacked Sentry Wheel Slip and had different engine governors.

13 B23-7's were built by GE of Brazil in Dec.1979 for United South Eastern Railways(FUS) no.522-524 and National Railways of Mexico(NdeM) no.9130-9139. 17 B23-7s were built from GE kits in Mexico as Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México no.10047-10052 and no.12001-12011.

From Wikipedia
Read more on American-Rails.com.

Road Name History: CSX Transportation (reporting mark CSXT) is a Class I railroad in the United States. The main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation, the railroad is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns about 21,000 route miles (34,000 km). CSX operates one of the three Class I railroads serving most of the East Coast, the other two being the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) and Canadian Pacific Railway. It also serves the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Together CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway have a duopoly over all east-west freight rail traffic east of the Mississippi River. As of October 1, 2014 CSX's total public stock value was slightly over $32 billion.

CSX Transportation was formed on November 1, 1980, by combining the railroads of the former Chessie System with Seaboard Coast Line Industries, and finally with the Seaboard System Railroad in 1986. The originator of the Seaboard System was the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which previously merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1967, and later with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, as well as several smaller subsidiaries such as the Clinchfield Railroad, Atlanta & West Point Railroad, Monon Railroad and the Georgia Railroad. The origin of the Chessie System was the former Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, which had merged with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and the Western Maryland Railway.

Read more on Wikipedia.

Brand/Importer Information: Bachmann Industries (Bachmann Brothers, Inc.) is a Bermuda registered Chinese owned company, globally headquartered in Hong Kong; specializing in model railroading.

Founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the home of its North American headquarters, Bachmann is today part of the Kader group, who model products are made at a Chinese Government joint-venture plant in Dongguan, China. Bachmann's brand is the largest seller, in terms of volume, of model trains in the world. Bachmann primarily specializes in entry level train sets, and premium offerings in many scales. The Spectrum line is the high quality, model railroad product line, offered in N, HO, Large Scale, On30, and Williams O gauge all aimed for the hobbyist market. Bachmann is the producer of the famous railroad village product line known as "Plasticville." The turnover for Bachmann model trains for the year ended 31 December 2006 was approximately $46.87 million, a slight increase of 3.36% as compared to 2005.