BNSF ran a light engine move from Commerce to Barstow yesterday to remove 26 LUGO Dash 8s from the soon to be reactivated Citcom Yard. The Dash 8s were all DIT, sandwiched by two GEVOs on either end.
Unfortunately, the light was dismal… but a special move like this still got me out.
Here’s a too tight shot of the string doing about 5 MPH at Commerce.
I am going to print these photo’s for a retired CN MOW supervisor I know.
He has told me how in his early days he had to help prepare steam engines to be towed dead to the scrap yard. He will be amazed to see he has lived long enough to see pictures of 3rd generation diesels likely on their way to meet the same fate.
The Dash-8s will eventually go back to the leasing company that owns them, the lease has a few months to run yet. IIRC the lease on the even numbered locomotives runs to August, the odd numbered locomotives to December.
These are modern locomotives with a lot of miles left in them that every mechanical department in North America knows like the back of their hand; with everything needed to maintain them in the inventory of every class 1 shop in North America.
I doubt they’re going to see the scrapyard anytime soon like the U-Boats, Dash 7’s, and the earliest Dash 8’s before them. I don’t doubt that they won’t be turning any miles in the future as BNSF units, but I’m sure they will see a second life in the second hand market as lease units, picked up by a Class 1 like Canadian National looking for a bargain on modern locomotives, sold for service in Mexico or elsewhere overseas, or be sold to one of your larger regionals that wants to upgrade it’s fleet but can’t afford the newest power from GE or EMD.
Do we know these aren’t going to Canadian National? They just picked up 35 former C&NW standard cab Dash 8’s that had been on the Union Pacific and supposedly had 25 safety cab Dash 8’s from BNSF coming as well. Could these be those locomotives? Perhaps the original poster was off by 1 and there were 25 Dash 8’s in this train?
There are more to be moved than just this batch, but yes the rumors about 25 going to CN concern this large batch. All indications are that these locomotives will leave US rails, whether they are scrapped or exported whole, remains to be seen. There are at least 4 companies offering kits to upgrade EMD locomotives to meet Tier 0+ emissions, this will keep the prices down, I haven’t heard of anyone offering the same for a GE. And all locomotives owned by the Class Is and large leasing companies have to meet Tier 0+ or higher when they are next overhauled or have the majority of their power assemblies replaced.
i built one of these “trains” yesterday, we are running them every few days and the word i got from my train master was that they are just going back east for storage. But these moves are a big pain to build and run from an operating standpoint.
Another potential destination for the Dash-8’s would be that happy hunting ground for old GE’s, Brazil. Old Dash-7’s have turned up on three of the major Brazilian operators, so Dash-8’s would also be possible.
Where I am in Kansas between Wellington and Mulvane. There seem to be a lot of the [Westbound] Container trains (mostly through to destination on West Coast (?) moving with DP Power on the rear ( usually two units, but occasionally only one unit)
Many of the trains,both east and west that seem to incorporate extra power on the head ends (I have seen as many as eight units on HE and probably half, or more of them DIT.) It Seems like that would be the way to move large light engine moves and incorporate them as part of a revenue move, rather than multiple engines, DIT Light Engine moves, as none revenue moves?
26 Dead in Tow/ Transit = DIT or Laid-Up Good Order = LUGO units at about 185 - 200 tons each = around 5,000 tons trailing in only about 2,000 ft. or so of train - closer to 5,800 tons including the active units.
If only the 2 ‘live’ units up front are ‘on-line’, then there might be around 8,500 HP for all of them, ar about 1.5 HP/ ton - though about double that if the trailing 2 units are in DPU mode.
But I suspect the real pain is the ‘Tons Per Operative Brake’ figure, if that’s calculated the same as for freight cars at 1 ‘Operative Brake’ per unit. That figure is going to be in the same 185 to 200 TPOB range, which is way over the usual ‘brackets’ for increasing restrictions of about 100, 120, and 140 TPOB or so for 286,000 lb. cars. Depending on the grades encountered and the specific rule book, the train may be restricted to only 20 to 30 MPH on long downgrades, even with the dynamic brakes on the lead locos being used.
The other thing may be that each unit has to be inspected when the train is assembled - not only for the usual couplers and train line air hoses from the ground, but the handbrakes, too, which means climbing up on each unit. And prudence would indicate checking each cab to make sure that each unit is properly set-up with no reverser lever and the throttle off, etc., and the appropriate setting on the air brake controls to make the unit behave just like any other freight car would.
There may well be other aspects that I haven’t thought of . . .
Right - until their prime mover diesel engines are upgraded/ overhauled as beaulieu pointed out above, or something else extraordinary happens, they can continue to run ‘as-is’ legally for quite a few more years.
Figure a new unit of comparable capability will cost about $2 million. As a first and rough approximation, to pay that off over 15 years at 6.0 % interest will cost about $16,900 per month =
I’m wondering when this many locomotives are hauled DIT would all the air brake MU hoses be connected so that all the locomotive airbrakes would be MUed.
Well for one like Paul said they are much heavier than normal railcars and they take a very long time for all the air tanks to fill back up since they were sitting for so long. also once you get them all together they take almost 30 to 45 seconds at least for the air brakes on the very rear loco to relaease and there is also a lot of slack action between them so you are constantly getting hit from behind while stopping or starting.
yes that would make sense to move a lot of engines like that if need be but like i said, from the engineers i know they say that a lot of power on trains turns into more of a headache than anything else because of the added weight you have to take in to account and the added slack action, it makes it much easier to rip something apart especially out here in southern California since we go over the Cajon pass with every train that goes east.
Are all of these leasers? I seem to remember that some of the dash 8s are owned outright by ATSF/BNSF and those are still operating on the BNSF.
I was unaware that anyone besides EMD offered a CFR 1033 part for their engines.
GE does offer a certified CFR 1033 part for the FDL. So in fact these can be rebuilt.
However, EMD historically offers their aftermarket and maintenance products at a much lower price point than GE does (EMDs cost more up front and are cheaper to maintain. That’s part of why they have longer service lives.) So, It may not make as much financial sense for any railroad to take these on. CN can operate them in Canada which has different emissions restrictions.