I was reading about the classic F40PH and that some of them had over 5 million miles on them. That got me wondering what kind of high milage freight units accumulate.
I’d like to see the odometer on the NS SD-9’s that work around Inman Yard in Atlanta.
What about the most successfull locomotives…SD40-2s? Some of them must have racked up some serious miles in there lifetimes.
Passenger engines used to rack up the highest mileage. I think a lot of E units hit 5,000,000 . Amtrak’s F40PHs must be way up there. I would guess a BNSF unit going back and forth between LA and Chicago could do 300,000 a year, but they would probably only do that for a couple of years before being replaced with something newer.
Do you suppose freight units see “hard” miles? A passenger train moves at high speed but has a lot of HP/ton for acceleration, so I imagine it runs up a lot of miles at cruise power settings. Many freight units may have fewer miles, but they are operated at lower speeds and higher power settings pulling hard.
I believe Amtrak has always been short on power, and keeps it’s engines going as much as possible. Now we have long distance coal trains that would produce high mileage, but there may be a long wait between trips.
Amtrack engines do not have it easy. The F40ph in HEP mode ran at notch 8 non stop day in day out. Even the P40’s are in notch 5 for HEP generation. Yes they accumulated alot of miles but the engines ran like they were pulling Cajon Pass 24/7
There were some prewar era Seaboard Coast Line engines (from various SCL predecessors) that made it onto Amtrak’s roster, IIRC. They shopuld be up there for high mileage awards.
work safe
Remember, there are still alot of worn out GPs out there still pulling after 40 plus years…
Fleet locomotove mileage averages between 200 & 400 miles per day which depends upon mostly the locomotive type. While the locomotives on an intermodal hot shot may do a 1000 miles or more in a 24 hour day; numerous of it’s siblings are slogging it out and are lucky to make a 200 mile crew district without the crew going on the law. Fleet averages also take into consideration the engines that operate in ‘out/back’ service where a crew operates a train to an outlying point; take rest and then assemble and return a train to the home terminal. Engines used in local freight and road work train service accumulate realtively little milage daily and those used in yard service generated the least daily milage. Those locomotives used in local freight and work train service are generally uses 8/12 hours a day and are not used on the off hours or on weekends; thus driving the overall average milage down.
Thanks for the response guys. I was hoping someone would have some hard numbers to post. [8D]
I can remember some of the B36-7s and B40-8s racking up 150,000 miles a year when they were new, but more typical for the road freight fleet was 80 - 120,000 miles/yr.
Just one more thing to add:
About the only thing mileage means to a locomotive is when you have to rebuild the trucks. I think Amtrak was on a two year cycle with the F40s where 4-5 years was more typical for a road frt loco.
There is no reason the F40s couldn’t have gone another 5M miles.
Chad-You could e-mail David Ingles at the magazine for hard numbers on older locomotives if thats what you’re looking for. David Lustig browses here a lot but does not seem to post.
The NP A-B-A sets of F units assigned to passenger service racked up some pretty high monthly mileage as they went on the NORTH COAST LIMITED eastbound at Livingston proceeded to St. Paul where they were assigned to the next westbound NCL then after arrival in Seattle they made a round trip to Portland then headed either the MAINSTREETER or NCL back to Livingston where they were checked over and any necessary maintenannce was performed before starting the entire trip over again on the next days eastbound NCL once again. The NP passenger F units have to be some of the highest monthly mileage units that were operated.
The GN operated their power out of Havre and when still operating F-units they operated Havre to St. Paul on the Empire Builder or Western Star then westbound on the same trains to Seattle then back to Havre where they would start the whole cycle over again.
The CPR when they first inaugurated the Canadian in 1955 operated an A-B-A set of F- units from Montreal to Vancover and return before changing power. True they did get a bit of a rest in Vancouver between arrival and departure the same day for the return but that was just a matter of hours. The same performance occurred daily on rival CN with the Super Continental.
Santa Fe operated passenger F units between Chicago and Los Angeles on the Super Chief and El Capitan round trip before a power change was made. And the same was true for the San Francisco Chief between Chicago and San Francisco.
When the UP operated the City of Los Angeles and City of Portland with the C&NW power often ran through but rarely was a round trip operated with the same power on these trains. After the Milwaukee Road replaced the C&NW the power often ran through initially but as passenger services were combined the Milwaukee Road power seemed to rarely run past Omaha. Guess this was due to the surplus of E-units the UP had. And the Milwaukee Road FP-45 stayed on Milwaukee Rails.
Locomotives do not have odometers to measure mileage and are not maintained on a milage basis but on a time basis.
I’d say hours of service is a better way to measure engine-performance. Just think on shunting engines. It makes a difference whether you need an engine more or less to fulfill your transportation needs.
On the maintenance issue, Armco Steel in Middletown OH had a good idea. Locomotives that operated over the B&O between the Hamilton and Middletown plants were maintained on a mileage basis in accord with ICC regulations and were numbered in the 700 series. Locomotives that operated strictly within the plant boundaries were maintained on an engine-hour basis and were numbered in the E series.
Yes, I would bet SD9s in general, would have to be some of the highest.
Dave
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I’d like to throw the Pennsy GG-1 into the mix. Aproximately 40 years of service up and down the N.E. Corridor.