What happend to all the SD60M’s? I hardly see them anymore. I see a few SD60’s. Alot of SD40-2’s. TONS of SD70M’s. But no SD60M’s. Allan.
I know that the 50’s and 60’s didn’t well all that well and have a reputation for being unreliable from the roundhouse point of view, and the 70’s are a much better machine. So, … … … maybe they are retireing the beasties to reduce costs?
I see the 60Ms quite a bit on the Phoenix line. The 50-series was unreliable, but the 60s IIRC were alright from a reliability standpoint.
I don’t believe they are retiring the SD60M’s, the SD50’s and SD60’s yes. I guess it’s just an unlucky streak for SD60M sights in that area.
the SD60’s are starting to get close to 20 years old. maybe some of there leases are coming due also.
they are out there, i see them in photos all the time
In fact, speaking of SD60Ms and the Phoenix Line, there was a westbound cement train today with 4 2200 class SD60Ms powering the train.
One of them was belching blue smoke, suggesting an engine problem.
I think you may be talking about GP60M’s, because with the safety cab, it was unevenly proportioned, and made for a very bumpy ride.
True, the GP60M had problems with the ride, but the SD50 is known as a crappy engine because its 645 engine was overworked. EMD had to work on many kinks with the SD60’s new engine in addition to the bad rep associated with the SD50 in the first place.
Anyway, I believe the SD60Ms have been mostly reassigned to the southwest (Ft. Worth Hauler service comes to mind)
I saw 10 SD60M’s yesterday in my 18 hour tenure at the Kirkwood, Missouri Train Station…I saw a record of 30 trains there! WOW!
Most of them were in the 2200, 2300 and some 2400 series numbering, however, two of them had their original 6200 and 6100 numbers, 6297 on the point of AASFX, and 6189 with an early 3 piece windsheild, training on MNPAS, which also had a DODX car with 2 Abrahms Tanks.
Another reason the SD50’s were terrible, was that the toilet area was so small, a medium-sized child would have trouble fitting inside; I know very few adults that, after seeing the toilet, would even try. The toilets were bad enough when they were new; now just try to imagine squeezing in this tiny, dirty, smelly little wannabe closet. YUK.
There are pleanty of the older 3 piece winshield SD60Ms around here. I was out on the Sunset last weekend and the Beaumont helpers were SD60Ms as were all the local power in Indio.