I stopped in Kingman Arizona and had the luck of finding a 4-8-4, Santa Fe 3759 on display in a park. They had a nice plaque listing a very breif history of the engine. One of the comments was that it had travled over 2,500,600 miles in its life. mostly in passenger service… WOW.
So, how does that compare by today’s standards or even for “back then standards”? Are there modern deisels with that kind of milage? Old SD40’s maybe?
They’re roughly the same, or so I’ve heard. Steel wears out or gets outdated at about the same rate as it did back then.
I was fortunate to get a cabride on an SP GP60 back in '93 - the engineer was showing me the computer display on the electrical cabinet door - one of the things listed was accumulated mileage. This particular unit (9609) was one of the first built - delivered early in 1988 - and had by that time racked up about 3 million miles! Keep in mind this was a 5-year-old unit at the time.
Of course, after several million miles, about the only thing that is probably “original” is the frame and most of the superstructure, and maybe the wiring. IIRC, the individual cylinders are also interchangeable, so you might be able to include the engine base in that…
I could be wrong, but you get my drift.
Silcon
If you figure that unit was 5 years old on a 360 day year that is 1666 miles per day, which is an average of over 60 mph for 24 hours per day. I think you are a bit high.
Mac
Yeah he is a team driven semi can not approach that and I was a hard running team with my father.
120,000 to 200,000 miles per year would be the range for a road frt unit., the lower number being more typical, the upper, for high utilization intermodal.
as base for locomotive mileage use following numbers:
20 hour a day(4 hours servicing, sitting in sidings etc)
45 mph average(maybe lower at most Railroads)
300 days a year (rest is inspections repairs, wheelmil, other defects)
This totals to about 270 000 Miles per year. or 1.35 million miles in 5 years.
That might be what it was - it has been 13 years so my memory might be a little off. I do remember thinking at the time that it was a lot.
They mostly used those GP60s in intermodal service at the time, but this particular night the unit was assigned to the Magma Turn local, along with a Sacramento rebuilt SD45.
And most locomotives would be hard pressed to do that! Most Locomotives run up about 250,000 mi. Amtrak’s P42s would likely be the most heavily traveled, but even then, they have mandatory inspections monthly that tie them up for between two and three days. they average 290-300K/year. The most lightly used BTW are the problematic ACDM32BPHs (look at a builder’s sticker, on one. BEWARE use discretion when doing this, you are in the NYSSR ,the only “state” these units operate in, regularly) They are, after a decade of service, running with under 2 million miles on their O.D.s!
With the P32acdm’s one has to see what series, as Amtrak ordered 8 first and another 10 later. Most MNCR units have 4.5 milion miles in 11 years. the first 6 got on property in 1995 just about at same time as Amtraks 8.
The fleet average for one of the Eastern Class I’s is in the range of 300 miles per day per engine. Engines spend a lot of time waiting for their next trip in a lot of instances as not all operations immediately receive and then ‘main track’ the locomotives to their next trip. Yes the locomotives on an Intermodal flyer can rack up more that 1000 miles in 24 hours, however, the engine on the outlying Road Switcher may be used for 12 hours and run 60 miles in completing its daily assignment and will then layover until the crew returns for the next days activities.
The Purple and Silver ACL E unit at the Spencer, N.C. musem has about 2.6 million miles.
I’ve heard of former Amtrak F40PH’s, now used in commuter rail service, with over 6 million miles on them.