Just saw some photos of Amtraks recycled F 40 “cabbages”, what a great idea instead of scrapping these locos and buying new “stuff” How did this happen in this era of “scrap and buy” and they are functional, economic and they actually work, the people responsible for this turn of events should have statues erected for them, - - - - hmmmmm, saving money, what an odd concept.
Well it’s not really an odd concept or a new one. Railroads have been converting their “old” or no longer “useful” equipment into something “new.” In fact, I just read about how the Santa Fe converted old heavy weight diners into flat cars to carry mail trucks at the head of passenger trains.
Many freight and passenger cars over the years have went from revenue service to work train service or simply just a place to store supplies. In the age of cabooses, many home-built cabooses originally started life as a freight car, usually a box car. In the age of steam, a few steam locomotives found their way to becoming stationary boilers providing steam (or steam heat) to some railroad facilities. Reading converted old 2-8-0’s into 4-8-4’s. While engine portion of steam locomotives generally had a less usefulness at the end of their service life, their tenders usually found a second life attached to another steam locomotive or something water carrying function. Today, NS is busy converting old SD’s and Geeps into mother/slug units. Conrail and CSX have done this in the past.
While Amtrak might be the first railroad to ever convert a locomotive into a control car/baggage car, their recycling of old equipment into a new use is nothing new for them. Amtrak has done plenty of conversions in it’s 40 year history: Cab-baggages (as you pointed out); Material Handling Cars into MOW storage cars; old Metroliner cars into cab-control cars; old Clocker coaches into baggage cars and some other F40’s were “transformed” into freight diesels by shortening the nose to accommodate a walkway. I’m sure whenever Amtrak replaces it’s Amfleet cars, many of them will find a second life in commuter services.
Whether a railroad converts old equipment into something new is a function of cost to convert verses buying new and what the railroad’s needs are at the time. In either case, there’s nothing new or odd about recycling railroad equipment.
Here’s yet another example…back in “the day” C&NW purchased ex-UP E-8B units and (at the direction of a motive power manager named Crandall) installed home made cabs to them so they could be used in Chicago commuter service and as such minimized the need for buying new locomotives…they were called “Crandall Cabs” around here.
Hello. anything would be better looking than the F-40.Ugh.Sorry just my opinion.Happy New Year all.
I think Long Island RR beat them to the punch years ago with their FA and F units turned into cab control/power pack cars.
Speaking of F40’s:
Everybody is entitled to thier own opinion, but IMHO the F-40 looks MUCH better than the newer G. E. Genesis units now powering Amtrak trains.
The F40 control cabs are different from LIRR’s control cabs rebuilt from FA’s and F’s. Amtrak’s F40 control cabs are just that, with a baggage/express area where the engine and main generator used to be. The LIRR control cabs retained engines and generators to provide HEP for their trains, since LIRR used GP38-2’s and MP15AC’s as motive power for their trains.
Currently, NS has an onogoing program of building road slugs from old GP38’s, CSX is expanding their fleet of road slugs with rebuilds from former GP40’s.
Jim You are correct.The newer G. E. Genesis units now powering Amtrak trains. Them are the units i Meant…thanks for the correction.