Western Railroad Discussion > Former UP GenSets await their fate

There are 12 ex-UPY RP20GE's sitting on a old mine spur, just off the UP Pinckneyville Sub, outside of Mt. Vernon, IL. The UPY reporting marks have been painted out with "LSM" reporting marks. I was made aware of these by a FB group last night and had to go check it out this morning. No telling how long they've been sitting here.

I guess they are sitting here until NRE can finally have time and room to dispose of these.

LSM(ex-UPY) #
2620
2628
2653
2667
2608
2677
2655
2619
2634
2640
2643
2636 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/19 12:54 by bodkin6071.

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What's keeping the air clean in Texas now?

According to Rail Serve the LSMX reporting marks belong to Progress Rail.

LSM = Lewis Scrap Metal

Remember just a few short years back when these things were supposedly the greatest thing since sliced bread? Sliced bread seems to still be going strong.

all show and no go

What a waste. And on top of it the person(s) who came up with the rules/law that required these locomotives to be built got their kickback, and are now retired from making those decisions. Happens all the time here in CA.

Posted from iPhone

I think every engineer that ever had to deal with these pieces of .... well, you know .... would like a couple of minutes manning the torch!

dan Wrote:
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> all show and no go

Lots of moving parts requiring maintenance. What could go wrong?

TJY

These must be some of the 80-plus gensets that were auctioned off last couple of months. Low bid $25K...couple went as high as $42,500....most in the $34-36K range.

Dick Samuels

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> dan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > all show and no go
>
> Lots of moving parts requiring maintenance. What
> could go wrong?
>
> TJY

Nothing better than a good old 8 cylinder EMD switcher to make a shortline money...horsepower to weight ratio close to perfect .....  not a lot of excess moving parts ..... and only ONE Roots blower to maintain even better! 

Dick Samuels
Oregon Pacific Railroad

Was it typical govt in such a rush to save the planet, that they were never bench tested under typical class 1 yard/local workloads, or just orphans being no one really knew how to maintain.    The few RR's still running Alco's dont seem to have any problem with them, but they have the same shop ppl working on them all the time..ppl who know how to baby them. 
Pacific harbor, M&ET, NWP, UP in Calif, still operating sme of the "other brand" of genset.   Up just has a few in yard/remote control service.  The Socal locals are now using GP-40's, Gp60's and SD-60's.

I happened to get the #2634 and #2636 when they were brand new, in 2007.

The poor MP B30-7/B23-7's that gave their lives for these crappy engines.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/19 15:14 by bodkin6071.

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ble692 Wrote:
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> LSM = Lewis Scrap Metal

Located in Burnt Prairie, 40 miles east of Mt. Vernon. No rail service there, so they will be scrapped here at Mt. Vernon.

bodkin6071 Wrote:
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> I happened to get the #2634 and #2636 when they
> were brand new, in 2007.
>
> The poor MP B30-7/B23-7's that gave their lives
> for these crappy engines.

That says a lot . . . lamenting the GE"s the gensets replaced!

EMDSW-1 Wrote:
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> These must be some of the 80-plus gensets that
> were auctioned off last couple of months. Low bid
> $25K...couple went as high as $42,500....most in
> the $34-36K range.
>
> Dick Samuels

Lots of industrial stationary generators can be made from those units. At 35k that would be a little over 11.5k per genset (x3 per loco) which is a good deal.

Another example of the computer being behind the need. After the engineer asks for more power the computer will find another prime mover to fire up. That is far slower than the prime mover being alive and running so the engineer throttles up before he needs more hp so it is building amps before the move happens.

All this computer is reactive rather than proactive.

How does the Modesto & Empire Traction keep 'em going?  They haven't fallen apart
in the last six years, have they?  Different frame and trucks but otherwise the same 
locomotive.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2798737,2798737#msg-2798737



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/19 16:39 by milepost20.

UP men in Ft Worth had no use for those things.  In the summer they would over heat and stall.

milepost20 Wrote:
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> How does the Modesto & Empire Traction keep 'em
> going?  They haven't fallen apart
> in the last six years, have they?  Different
> frame and trucks but otherwise the same 
> locomotive.
>
> https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,
> 2798737,2798737#msg-2798737

My feeling is that on the UP the gensets were more of a nuisance than an asset when they had EMD and GE units in storage and were selling off SW1500's and MP15's regularly in auctions furthur frustrating the shop shop crews
.
I consider UP's shop crew's rebellion to the gensets similar to the situation when the Krauss-Maffai hydraulics showed up on the EsPee in the 1960's.

M&ET on the other hand, before the arrival of the SW1500's had an entire fleet of GE 70- tonne with  which they were familiar with simple maintainable 1950's technology, ample (but dwndling) spare parts supply and an owner with the resources to maintain them to high reliability standards (26 air and AAR control stands). As such, the fleet of gensets still are able to be maintained to the same high standards as the GE's by the same shop crew (I assume) who know their gensets need to be kept running to provide paychecks. 

I wonder if the M&ET were located somewhere besides California the 70-tonners would still be around.

Dick Samuels
Oregon Pacific Railroad



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/19 20:43 by EMDSW-1.