Product Description
Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that General Electric DC traction motors used on GE road locomotives — including the U-Boat family (U25B, U28B, U30B, U33B, U36B, and their six-axle C-model counterparts), the Dash-7 series (B23-7, B30-7, C30-7), and the Dash-8 series — allegedly incorporated asbestos-containing electrical insulation. According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, this allegedly included varnished-cambric coil wraps, armature slot insulation, commutator-lead insulation, and asbestos-braided flexible lead wire.
Publicly filed asbestos litigation records allege that traction motor rewinds, brush and commutator turning, and lead-wire replacement — performed in railroad backshops, in the GE Erie plant, and by outside motor repair shops — allegedly required workers to cut, tear, grind, and burn off insulation and braided lead sheathing to access windings and terminations, allegedly releasing asbestos fiber into the shop breathing zone.
Workers Exposed
- Railroad electricians performing traction motor rewinds, brush replacement, and lead-wire work in backshops
- Railroad machinists removing and installing traction motors during power-truck work
- Railroad shop laborers cleaning up cut and torn insulation debris from shop floors
- Railroad locomotive engineers and firemen exposed to residual dust when placing recently-shopped units back into service
- Railroad car maintainers working alongside electricians in shared backshop space