What engines have been used by AT&SF after 1990 as switchers and lite freight engines running locals and servicing industry spurs?I have a special focus on south California. In Vernon (LA county) the LAJ got old CF-7 and some MK1200. How was it done in the other southern California areas?
I do not ask for heavy switchers doing hump service at large classification yards.
Scanning the usual online photo archives does not show the the common SW1nnn, MP15xx etc. The older AT&SF switches (e.g. VO1000 Zebra paint) are not in service anymore. The CF-7 has gone at the end of the 1980th. Reguild GP30/35 look not right for that service. The only matching engine I see are the rebuild low nose GP7/9 done after the CF-7
Don’t forget AT&SF had a sizeable number of rebuilt GP-20’s still in service and hordes of rebuilt GP-7’s, they could be observed everwhere in So Cal during your time frame in local, switching and mainline service and yes, even emergency Amtrak service as I observed a trio of rebuilt geep 20’s in new warbonnet blue and yellow with a power car on the head end of the Southwest Chief without any Amtrak motive power present, on a second sighting the same week, Geep 30’s were in charge of a eastbound run!
Although you preclude large power, SD40’s were common in local/switching service and even ex-Amtrak SDP45’s in their final years were used on transfer runs to the SP Colton yard on occasion. Oddly, the rebuilt SF33C’s (rebuilt U33’s) seemed to escape secondary service, the sighting of one in CA was a rare pleasure where as before rebuilding they were a common sight.
You’re time frame is too late to include some interesting motive power: The rebuilt SW1200’s (SB1200) , all were offered to Amtrak as part of a trade agreement in 1984, the rebuilt to SD26’s standards and the remaining orginal configured SD24’s began leaving the roster that year as well, most victims of the same trade agreement for the SDP45’s, the remaining Alco RSD 15’s were stricken from the roster after years in dead storage and a corporate decision not to rebuild them for further service.
Keep in mind too you’re looking at a pretty narrow window, 1990-96 since ATSF merged with BN to form BNSF in 12/31/1996. By then, as noted, first generation diesels in general were pretty much all gone, and switchers per se had kind of died out. In the last 20 years or so their jobs have been done by older GPs from the sixties or seventies. There were (and are) switchers out there on some railroads, particularly shortlines, but big railroads like ATSF generally didn’t replace their first generation switchers with newer switchers.
I forgot to mention one unique switcher, the recently retired “beep” a former VO1000 that received a GP style long hood, Blomberg trucks and a EMD 567 power plant, considered a prototype, the conversion cost incurred on this single unit killed any further notion of trying to extend the life of Baldwin switchers, After many years as a shop switcher at Barstow, Ca. It was transfered to the Topeka Kansas maintainance faclities after the BNSF merger where it continued in limited service until 2009 before being stored , have no fear, the Beep has been preserved for the future enjoyment of those who enjoy truly unique motive power!
In the 90’s Santa Fe used older GP35s and GP38s with their turbochargers removed as well as some rebuilt GP7s called GP7"u"s for yard switching and local freights. Nearly all of Santa fe’s traditional yard switcher style locos and had been been retired by the 80’s with the exception of one which was a Baldwin VO1000 fitted with a GP7 style longhood, trucks, and an EMD 567 motor. It was dubbed a “beep” by shop workers. The unit was only used as a shop switcher though but was on the BNSF roster until fairly recently.
What has changed so drastically since the transition period to make the classic switcher obsolete? During the transition period S1, S2… NW2, SW7… had a great time and were demanded by the railroads. That continued into the MP15… but at a lower level. The total amount of todays switches as Genset etc. is much lower.
You describe that the typical jobs performed by classic switchers (S1…) are done by much bigger units (GP35…) today if at all.
Is the reason the dramatic change of the customers? The first diesel switches had to serve the backyards of old brick buildings downtown with lots of boxcars. The curves were tight and the max. load per axis low. Most of that traffic has been moved to intermodal and is delivered by truck to the customer. The customer moved to modern industrial areas and got, if at all, sidings that could easily handled by GP38 etc. Therefor the classic job of industry siding service can be done with older road units today and no, or much less, dedicated switchers are needed today.
Single car customers are not the norm these days, preblocking has huge advantages over the sigle car/single customer methods of old and allows a railroad to take full advantage of locomotive utilization, it’s a natural process, as older units are relieved from road service by newer power, older power cascades down to secondary service then to retirement or resell, this was common during the steam era to a certain extent as well. A big disavantage with the traditional end cab switcher in later years was the lack of federally mandated roller bearings, mutiple unit capability and inherent lack of speed associated with the type , some roads retrofitted their fleets at great cost for very little gain as incressing train tonnages and evolving corporate decisions regrading power utilization rendered them virtually extinct.
Products of Alco, Baldwin, Fairbanks Morse and early GE models couldn’t survive in an era where standardization, realiabilty and fuel economy were all inclusive, despite extenstive after market parts support and technical guidance they were simply too expensive to operate. On the other hand, some roads despite the fact these builders were defunct didn’t seem to deter operation by roads that had a affinity towards them until silenced by mergers, advanced age or mechanical directives.
For example, SP loved everything about the GE U25B when they first arrived, except the prime mover, as late as 1980 they were exploring ways to extend the lives of these venerable units, the result was the U25BE which was shorn of the turbo charger and incorporated later GE assemblies into the rebuilt prime mover, they were excellent power for local and switching assignments, if a bit underpowered for road service, but always cost more to operate and maintain despite the improvements, they and their big sisters the U33C’s fell victim to a cash strapped railroad that
The BEEP, as far as I know, never saw service in Barstow. It was made in Cleburne, TX, and remained there until the shops closed in 1987. Then, it moved to Argentine. Sometimes it flip-flopped in service between Topeka and Argentine.
Another factor these days is lack of toilet facilities. CA law pretty much requires one to be available. The end-cab switchers usually don’t have one, or space to put one in. On a GP, there is plenty of room in the short hood for one.
Cars and cuts of cars are getting bigger and heavier, and the smaller switchers just don’t have enough guts to effectively move a cut around. My employer has some MP15ACs, late-model switchers, and we usually have them paired up to move things around. These kind of blur the lines, as they are end-cab switchers, but they ride on GP type trucks, and have a toilet compartment.
How about the SW1500 in CA? I did find lots of newer photos of thet switcher in CA but to my understanding is no toilet in the SW1500. Does that restrict the switcher to the yard with facilities available?
During the final decade amid a severe power shortage , it was common to employ them as road power, a job for which SP orginally intended them to do when when not occupied with switching/transfer duties On the Oxnard turn we used them frequently for several months with a U25BE and SD9/ GP9 lashup, although lacking dynamic brakes they had the capacity to transmit DB commands to trailing units, thus placement was not an issue