Western Railroad Discussion > Dash 8s Return to the UP

Apparently the GE Dash 8 era on the UP is not over yet. Motive power needs have required the UP to dig deep into the deadlines recently, and now they have gotten far enough into those deadlines that some Dash 8 locomotives are going back into service. Already back out and running are UP 9152,9377,9413,9470,9521,9546. Others are in various shops being worked on for a return to service. After last years large sale of 266 UP Dash 8 locomotives to GE, I honestly did not expect any of the 42 Dash 8s still owned by the UP to ever see service again as a UP locomotive. Guess I was wrong.

Current locations of those already back in service:
9152 - past Carnes, IA 2/22/18 11:46 on MCBVP 21 (leader UP 5970)
9377 - on same train as UP 9152
9413 - arrived Pine Bluff, AR 2/21/18 23:09
9470 - passed Northfield, MN 2/22/18 11:51 on OVRFG 20 (leader UP 8449)
9521 - passed West Dennison, IA 2/22/18 12:00 on QNPPR 20 (leader UP 8043)
9546 - passed Bridge Jct, AR 2/22/18 13:26 on MSFNL 22 (leader NS 2619)

As for an update on other locomotives being returned to service, here is where some other models currently stand for units back in service as active locomotives.

SD60: 36 active out of 51 units (entire group of 32 SD62 units are active)
SD60M: 140 active out of 248 units
C44-9W: 141 active out of 268 units

There are quite a few more of the above 3 models currently being worked on for a return to service, at a shop awaiting their turn for shop time, or moving towards a shop for their turn. Note there is still nothing happening on the SD9043AC fleet. A couple of locomotives to note, UP 9750 & 9805 are the ex-CNW twins, and they are now back out there in service in some fresh UP paint I presume.

Railroads have been reactivating older power. Hope BNSF reactivate their BNSF Dash 8-40CWs soon, I'm sure they will as business picks up

What happened to the 70 unit tier 4 ge order that UP was supposed to get last year?

PeaBock619 Wrote:
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> Railroads have been reactivating older power. Hope
> BNSF reactivate their BNSF Dash 8-40CWs soon, I'm
> sure they will as business picks up


Except for CSX who is selling many of their locomotives as fast as they can get rid of them.
As fast as they are ripping out yards and closing them down, they won't need them anyway.

I believe that the strategy here is to use what you already own. That trend has likely gotten more traction as the purchase price of new locomotives has risen substantially because of the Tier 4 regulations. I surmise that the railroads will get a few more years of service out of the older units, then rebuild some of the best candidates from that pool, rather than purchase new locomotives. There seems to be quite a bit of that already happening.

PeaBock619 Wrote:
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> Railroads have been reactivating older power. Hope
> BNSF reactivate their BNSF Dash 8-40CWs soon, I'm
> sure they will as business picks up


Of BNSF’s 85 C40-8W units on roster (#867-951), zero are currently active with the most recent two or three units seeing time on the rails last summer.

There are currently 11 out of 55 BNSF SD75Ms active, 13 out of 59 and B40-8Ws, and just 1 out of 35 B40-8s active.



Mr. MRL

ble692 Wrote:

Note there
> is still nothing happening on the SD9043AC fleet.

Why is that I wonder?

There are no other older models in storage is there?

I sure enjoy seeing the older units go by. Earlier this week I seen a sd60m 2405 helping a C44AC on a loaded coal train. Im sure back in the day this was more common but I have never seen that happen around here.

rhmich Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PeaBock619 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Railroads have been reactivating older power.
> Hope
> > BNSF reactivate their BNSF Dash 8-40CWs soon,
> I'm
> > sure they will as business picks up
>
>
> Except for CSX who is selling many of their
> locomotives as fast as they can get rid of them.
>
> As fast as they are ripping out yards and closing
> them down, they won't need them anyway.

Don't forget the loss of customers....

It will be interesting to see how CSX moves forward from here.

bankshotone Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ble692 Wrote:
>
> Note there
> > is still nothing happening on the SD9043AC
> fleet.
>
> Why is that I wonder?
>
> There are no other older models in storage is
> there?
>
> I sure enjoy seeing the older units go by. Earlier
> this week I seen a sd60m 2405 helping a C44AC on
> a loaded coal train. Im sure back in the day this
> was more common but I have never seen that happen
> around here.

There is someone in the Pratt, KS area videoing UP trains and posting them on Youtube. He's posted a bunch within the last couple of days, including a manifest train with a older SD60 in the locomotive consist. Man, the turbo on that unit howled!

The wb "rock" trains he's posted are actually Texas bound unit frac sand trains (usually run 2x2 on the GSR).

It's worth a look...


Allen



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/18 17:12 by bradleymckay.

MrMRL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PeaBock619 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Railroads have been reactivating older power.
> Hope
> > BNSF reactivate their BNSF Dash 8-40CWs soon,
> I'm
> > sure they will as business picks up
>
>
> Of BNSF’s 85 C40-8W units on roster (#867-951),
> zero are currently active with the most recent two
> or three units seeing time on the rails last
> summer.
>
> There are currently 11 out of 55 BNSF SD75Ms
> active, 13 out of 59 and B40-8Ws, and just 1 out
> of 35 B40-8s active.
>
>
>
> Mr. MRL

Does anymone know the read numbers of the SD75M that BN=SF kept? Which ones are active?

Cliffs619 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does anymone know the read numbers of the SD75M
> that BN=SF kept? Which ones are active?

Kept 51 of them:

BNSF 227
BNSF 233
BNSF 250-256
BNSF 258-299

45 have been/are getting overhauled by Progress Rail. Those 45 are 251-256, 258, 260-271 and 273-298. Of those, 42 are in service. The 287, 290 and 291 have not been released by Progress Rail, yet.

227 and 233 are stored. 250, 259, 272 and 299 were harvested for parts and will be scrapped.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/18 18:37 by MP555.

bankshotone Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why is that I wonder?

Basically the electronics (and cabs) on the units are junk. To be a reliable locomotive they would need work along the lines of what the NS did/is doing to their SD90MAC fleet. At this point the UP seems uninclined to do anything to their fleet. So they sit. For at least 3 years running at this point.

> There are no other older models in storage is there?

On the 6 axle side, not really. Not in any numbers. The only stored 6 axle units not mentioned in my original post would be stored account of mechanical issues, accident damage, awaiting shop time, etc. There are quite a few 4 axle units still stored serviceable. Most of the HLCX and GMTX GP38-2 fleet the UP has leased are stored, as are about 80 units of the GP15-1 fleet.

One thing to keep in mind is that many (not all) of the Dash-8s UP hung on to got souped up with fresh paint and split cooling (and maybe further overhauling?) in the last few years. I'm not sure how big an improvement these are (in terms of things like failure rates) these are as compared to a random 93xx toaster, but the ones that are left may be the best of the best.

ble692 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bankshotone Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Why is that I wonder?
>
> Basically the electronics (and cabs) on the units
> are junk. To be a reliable locomotive they would
> need work along the lines of what the NS did/is
> doing to their SD90MAC fleet. At this point the UP
> seems uninclined to do anything to their fleet. So
> they sit. For at least 3 years running at this
> point.

Which is why I think UP is going to sell/unload this fleet at some point.

I hope these reactivated locos will be in service for a while, like the Warbonnet Dash-9s were put back in service during 2016 and are still in service to this day.

Joe Tarantine

The SD60’s and -8’s are officially part of the “Surge Fleet”.

They have been out in various numbers for at least a month, with a few out my way for the past three months.

None are slated (at this time) for PTC installs and haven’t had cab signals certified for quite some time (many have the cabs covered as “out of service”) for a long time.

So essentially, trailing units only or leaders in low volume main lines that are not required to be PTC equipped.

They still work well - albeit beat up on the inside.

Had one not too long ago that had the onboard conductor computer still intact but removed from power.

Did have a SD60M with a computer screen I’ve never seen before on the control stand - but was t powered up.

I have see. A SD70M 4xxx retrofitted with a fire screen fitted to it - so not sure if it was a test motor or something else going on with it. Forgot to write down that number to look it up.

Posted from iPhone

A bunch of SD60Ms already have PTC arrays along with a bunch of Dash 9's

Joe Tarantine

MaMan15 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What happened to the 70 unit tier 4 ge order that
> UP was supposed to get last year?


Cancelled

Does anyone know why GE is buying all those units?

upengr21 Wrote:
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> Does anyone know why GE is buying all those units?

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4388705,4388705#msg-4388705