According to a poster at locophotos.com, NS is purchasing several BNSF SD60Ms and SD75Ms, as well as NYSW SD70Ms.
Nice to see Susie-Q’s SD70M’s getting a new lease on life. Was almost ready to give them up for dead since it sounds like they’re in dire need of an overhaul and as hard as it is to believe, they’re just about 20 years old now and aren’t young locomotives anymore.
I wonder if those former Soo SD60’s from CEFX will find their way here. Keep waiting to hear that they’re going there or to Canadian National, but they continue to sit to the best of my knowledge. There’s no way that they’re going to be scrapped like some have claimed.
Weren’t the former SOO SD60s rebuilt in kind by Altoona for CIT?
Indeed, it appears that at least 5 units were rebuilt last Fall for continued service with their lease fleet.
Amazing how rumors start. One railfan photographer captions a photo of these stored units stating that a Norfolk Southern employee told him they were to be scrapped and it spread like wildfire across the internet in railfan circles.
I wouldn’t be surprised if any of the non rebuilt units, if they were ever even for sale, follow some of their SD40-2’s that previously departed to NS’s roster for rebuild fodder just like the purchases that are the subject of this thread.
To start another debate. Has NS bought any GEs to be rebuilt and if not why ? Ease of rebuilding, aging, and so forth ?
Venturing a guess here, I’d say that it’s because they’re just in the infancy of starting to rebuild GE’s where as their EMD programs already are well established.
I would expect if they’re pleased with their Dash 8.5 program and current trends continue that they very well might purchase some 2nd hand GE’s one of these days if some C40-8’s come up for sale at a reasonable price.
The C40-8 and derivatives looks set to be the first GE road locomotive to have a significant 2nd life unlike the U-Boats, Dash 7’s, and early Dash 8’s that preceded them.
Yeah, even beyond NS, rebuilding EMDs is a long standing industry which EMD has made easier to participate in.
NS has a lot of institutional knowledge and history inside and out into how to do this. I do find it fascinating that their Tier 2 rebuilds don’t use the EMD ECO package and in fact their split cooling seems significantly different. I’d love someone with knowledge to do a compare and contrast.
I had seen those picture captions (as well as internet discussions) and had a good laugh at the time… not that I would mislead fans or anything like that.
Say, does anyone know what’s going on with ol’ Susie-Q? I understand there’s been quite a downturn in business for them, and in fact they’ve been trying to get CSX interested in purchasing the line outright.
Anyone know?
It will be interesting to see how long GE will keep up parts support for the -8s. They ended it about 2007 for the -7s, which all died rather suddenly. EMD has continued to support parts for almost all models, due to parts commonality.
Good to see these locomotives are finding new homes.
Edit: a quick check of pictures indicates that many of the CEFX SD60s are on the road in lease service, and have been for at least a few months.
The big difference between EMD and GE is the lengths GE will go to protect their part’s supply lines. EMD parts can be had from numerous vendors, including GE. If you’re looking for GE parts, good luck. True story: I needed a lower half of a traction motor gear case for a Dash 8. At least 100 of those go by me everyday. Try as I might calling around no one had one to spare. Whereas if it were EMD I can walk up to any tree and two or three will fall out when you shake it.
So in a nutshell -------
Buy GE cheaper up front pay dearly for parts and expect parts to dry up for 20+ year old.
Buy EMD pay more up front but get parts more cheaper and for much longer ?
Present accounting practices might give the bias to buy GE ?
Would explain NS buying second hand EMD and not GE ?
In the past, absolutely. Going forward, we shall see. When NS undertook the SD40E rebuld program they put out for bid for the replacement of the EMD 50-series control system. EMD won the bid. A similar process was performed for the SD60E program.
One of the problems we are seeing with Dash 8 locomotives is faliure of the ancient on-board computers which, of course, are no longer supported by GE. If NS intends to pursue a Dash 8 rebuild program this will have to be addressed. If a replacement is devised and produced then that should add to the longevity of Dash 8s.
Hope you are wearing your hard hat and steel-toed shoes when those gear case covers come raining down[B)]
Don’t be silly. That’s what mechanic’s helpers are for.
I’m an engineer for NS and can tell you that we don’t want any more Trash-8s! They are the absolute worst engines we have on the roster. I had one earlier today, a former Conrail CW40-8 and it rode worse than Mr Toads wild ride at Disneyland! On GE engines in particulat the truck bolsters wear out creating a lot of play for the large pin that sets inside of the truck frame. When you go down the track at speeds up above 40 mph not in power it causes the unit to slap the rail side to side with excessive lateral movement. To someone that doesn’t ride trains for a living it would scare the heck out of you. You would think this engine is about to jump completely off the rails. To us it becomes a safety issue. I have seen these GEs throw a conductor completely out of his seat! Imagine if that person got up to use the restroom and fell and busted his or her head. I for one will be gratefull when these Dash-8s are gone just like the piece of trash Dash-7 and Uboats were before them!
EMD#1:
How do the 9-, sand GEVO’s ride?
Caldreamer,
The Dash9s (the ES’s seem to have the same truck) were the among the most, a combination of, predictable and comfortable, engines, I ran over a 42 year career in engine service; others: EMD E’s, Alco PA’s, Blomberg B trucks on maximum weight, 265000 Lb engines, FM Trainmasters, the Alco S-1 and S-2 truck.
Faultless: the Flexi-Coil SW-1500s.
Pretty darn good: the AAR B on our DL701’s and 7300’s/4000’s.
Predictability…and comfort?
A locomotive smoothly, tamely moves until, throttle and track mix a witch’s brew of ride variants:
Our correspondent said that on a drifting throttle, violent lateral motion happened. YEAH!..Those trucks, those GE’s for years had them.
Rock and Roll… never met a GM EMD 3axle truck, highlight, emphasize 'til the current truck, that couldn’t come close to terrifying me.
Maybe I put them in an uncompromisable mechanical place?
Ran out of time…back later, gotta go out.
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So how did they ride when they were new? Just curious since I fix and don’t run them. I’d also like to know how the Dash 9s and ES ACs and DCs are “wearing in.”
Considering how many are being rebuilt…with no indication of a bogie swap, one has to wonder if they are addressing this.