Western Railroad Discussion > Santa Fe GP 60M Locomotives

Several years ago when Santa Fe ordered a fleet of GP 60M locomotives with Comfort Cabs, they were at that time touted to be the locomotive of it's day for transcontinental delivery of goods from the west coast and would see the Santa Fe into the 21st Century as one of their primary power packages. Now with the BNSF merger, are the GP 60M prime movers still playing an important role or have they been replaced with newer motive power? Also, if they are still in service, have they been repainted to BNSF colors and if so, which color scheme?

Jim

They are turning orange in a hurry.

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Here's a question for BNSF engineers from a modeler and ATSF fan...I read somewhere that the GP60M is disliked by you folks because the ride is really rough....what say you? And what WAS your favorite Santa Fe motor to run?
(Sorry if this is one of ' those' questions that people like me ask too often)
Randy

They ride terrible, they bounce, they howl, vibrate & shudder. They run sand every time you start moving, change directions, or hit a bump, for no reason. If you have a ground relay, it takes half an hour before it re-sets. The engine RPM has a mind of it's own, and it will sit at fast idle "engine cool down cycle" while the GE's in the consist are shut down, saving fuel with their "Smart start". Very annoying. The seats are better now but they had a "Pogo stick" spring loaded set up when new that would float you up & down as the engine bounced. Sometimes they would be adjusted just like you wanted, then without warning, they would just collapse all the way down. Seats are better now, but the control stand is awkward & hard to get comfortable with. The throttle too short, horn & bell buttons hard to use, alertor re-set in the wrong place, gauges are hard to see, but have been tilted toward the engineer slightly now. Cabs are cramped, toilet harder to access. Like an SD-75 only on a smaller scale. We love our Dash-9's

BNSF #126 & 127 are in local service in the Stockton (CA) area. They paired up yesterday on the Sacramento (Polk) Turn.

To answer Jim's question, most of the GP60M's are not on long-distance transcon intermodal service anymore. A lot are paired together on local services. I noticed a lot of them matched up in Belen and Gallup, NM last time i was out there. MOst mainline assignments on the former ATSF, and BN for that, are the GE C44-9W's, as BNSF has at least a 1000 of them.

I'll bet engineers hate using these units in local service, what with their visibility of the front stairwell and ease of use running backwards!

Just a couple notes, there is only 1 pure ATSF lettered one left. The 135 is the last one that is 'untouched'. Here are all the GP60m's on the BNSF roster if interested.....

BNSF 100 M-TULKCK1-11A Departed TULSA OK 051103 1450
BNSF 101 RINCON TA 0510 1345
BNSF 102 B-NTWWAT5-10A Passed MULVANE KS 051103 1619
BNSF 103 Z-CLOPHX2-11A Passed DEFIANCE NM 051103 1509
BNSF 104 TULSOK TA 0510 2013
BNSF 105 B-ALTBLV5-11A Passed MANHATTAN TX 051103 1619
BNSF 106 GALLUP TA 0510 1130
BNSF 107 SLATTX TA 0511 1536
BNSF 108 LALAND TA 0511 0915
BNSF 109 CHICAG TA 0509 0505
BNSF 110 H-SVLLAR1-10A Departed ODEM TX 051103 1615
BNSF 111 GALLUP TA 0509 1730
BNSF 112 ELDOUP TAMO 0511 0618
BNSF 113 GALLUP TA 0509 1730
BNSF 114 KANCMO TAMO 0511 0400
BNSF 115 S-LPCLBT1-08A Passed CANDIABLO AZ 051103 1341
BNSF 116 ASHFOR TAMO 0511 0330
BNSF 117 Y-ALT1101-11T Arrived FTWORTH TX 051103 0938
BNSF 118 GALEIL TA 0511 1616
BNSF 119 PASCO TA 0511 0959
BNSF 120 GALLUP TA 0509 0400
BNSF 121 LAURMT TA 0511 1346
BNSF 122 MEMPTN TA 0511 1121
BNSF 123 CARLNM TA 0508 1540
BNSF 124 Z-SBDALT9-10B Passed TOLAR NM 051103 1524
BNSF 125 GALLUP TA 0510 1130
BNSF 126 H-ALTAMA1-11A Departed QUANAH TX 051103 1626
BNSF 127 STOCKT TA 0510 2020
BNSF 128 STOCKT TA 0510 2020
BNSF 129 H-PASBAR1-08A Arrived BEALVILLE CA 051103 1258
BNSF 130 Z-LACATG1-10B Passed HEREFORD TX 051103 1604
BNSF 131 S-CWSLBP1-10A Passed CANADIAN TX 051103 1516
BNSF 132 GRAFOR TA 0511 0901
BNSF 133 V-PHXKCK4-10A Passed SCHOLLE NM 051103 1505
BNSF 134 V-PTLKCK8-07A Arrived STJOSEPH MO 051103 1621
ATSF 135 H-NWOBEL1-09A Arrived SWEETWATE TX 051103 1445
BNSF 136 CHICAG TA 0511 0925
BNSF 137 P-CHIRIC1-10D Departed VAUGHN NM 051103 1427
BNSF 138 NEWTON TA 0510 2250
BNSF 139 RICHCA TA 0510 2350
BNSF 140 DAYTUP TA 0429 1149
BNSF 141 KANCMO TA 0507 0835
BNSF 142 S-BPAFTM3-11V Passed YOST IL 051103 1609
BNSF 143 TEMPTX TA 0511 0149
BNSF 145 BERRY TAMO 0508 0816
BNSF 146 HARVIL DD 0402 2201 Offline
BNSF 147 Q-SBDCHI1-08A Arrived JOLIET IL 051103 1616
BNSF 149 DAYTUP TAWO 0428 1700
BNSF 150 KANCKS TA 0511 0448
BNSF 151 P-LACCHF1-09D Departed PRATT KS 051103 1457
BNSF 153 Z-LACATG1-10B Passed HEREFORD TX 051103 1604
BNSF 154 CHICAG TA 0510 0655
BNSF 155 WELLKS TA 0509 2327
BNSF 156 M-TPLLIN1-09A Passed STJOSEPH MO 051103 1606
BNSF 157 CHICAG TA 0511 1330
BNSF 158 CHICAG TA 0510 1353
BNSF 159 MINOT TA 0510 1332
BNSF 160 WINSAZ TA 0510 1715
BNSF 161 Y-ABQ1021-11G
BNSF 162 CHICAG TA 0511 1555

Thanks to all of you for your most detailed information.

Jim