Nostalgia & History > Who remembers the GP40X?

1 --  Seven in a row at San Bernardino on the Santa Fe in 1981.
2 --  A pair sandwiched between another pair of SD39s at Colton on the SP in 1982.

John

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One of my favourite locos.... great shots, thanks for sharing.

I never got to operate the GP40X's but I did see them and posted a set of them earlier on a UP westbound passenger special in Cheyenne.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Southern had three, and they led Southern into buying 90 GP50's. What a mistake that turned out to be.  

The Southern Railway GP40X and GP50's served them well into the NorfulkSouthern and beyond.

"Super Series failure". Almost ever one I caught had the same problem.

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Nice, Santa Fe during the period when used on York Canyon coal, and, typical anything goes SP "hauler" power.
JB

"Super Series Failure" occurred regularly on the SP's four also. Usually caused by dirt on the radar, too long between trips over the service pit where they could get the transmitter cleaned off.

The basin haulers got anything that wasn't dependable enough to run in pool freight.  The LA Roundhouse put at least twice the power on the Oxnard-Colton Hauler that it needed, just to make sure it got there. The 5308 wouldn't run 15 minutes without failing for ground relay, and the early SD39s didn't have a traction motor cutout switch, so it was useless as soon as it got warm, and the roundhouse wouldn't fix it. The RH got "credit" for turning out an "OK" unit, but the SP had no accountability for it failing before the end of the first trip.

The other problem was that the Oxnard was a mainline change in LA, it didn't go into the RH in LA.  At West Colton where the power was in the house for eight hours or so, WC was too busy doing mainline work, so the locals were neglected because the WC roundhouse figured the Oxnard only had to make LA.
G

When I was about 18, a buddy and I once got a personal tour of a UP business train led by Drew Lewis.  We were in Portola when the train stopped overnight so Drew and his family could tour the WP Museum.  I was explaining the GP40X locos on the point to my friend when Mr. Lewis walked up behind us and mentioned that he always wondered why those engines looked different.  He encouraged me to finish my explanation and then offered us a tour of the train.

Always think of that when I see GP40Xs.  Aside from the UP's, I saw the Santa Fe's on occaision when I was in Arizona.

Neat shots!

Z

Still see ex SF one once in a while in switcher sets at Havelock. Seems like the number is 3030.
Steve

Got to run two of them out of Pensacola, FL. Had one of the new SP ones on the point of 402 from Mobile, Al to Pensacola and a UP one on a work train north of Pensacola. Would have to dig out my old timebooks to find the dates. The trucks and flare made them memorial.

Steve Panzik
Chiloquin, Or

Bob3985 Wrote:
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> I never got to operate the GP40X's but I did see
> them and posted a set of them earlier on a UP
> westbound passenger special in Cheyenne.


You didn't miss anything. The radar wheel slip system and the lousy ride made them some real losers.

What I've always found interesting about the GP40X was that Southern and Santa Fe bought them with Blomberg M trucks, and went and purchased good size fleets of GP50's.  Union Pacific and Southern Pacific bought them with the HT-B truck (the only diesels to have them) and didn't buy any GP50's, although SP did by a bunch of GP60's.

Stuart

The GP60 was a much better locomotive because it has a 710 engine and not the pushed beyond-it's-limits 645F the GP50 had.

I liked the engines - I made a lot of trips on Amtrak #5 and #6 going between Reno and Denver.  The UP added them at Ogden as protection power, as they were then using the line through Cheyenne.  We were really late into Ogden several times, but we were on-time by the time we got near Cheyenne!
Joel Kirk

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/19 17:38 by SanJoaquinEngr.

SP had four these units. The SP 7200 and the 7201 and the 7230 and 7231. The units were equipped with remote capabilities. These engines had the first generation Locotrol system. The SP experimented with using all four units on the head end of the short lived LAOAC. Super hot piggyback and container service from the Los Angeles Shops to Oakland. I ran this train a few times usually ran with 4 to 20 cars. The mu cable was removed between the third and fourth units and we were instructed to use these units using the remote Locotrol system as needed for acceleration or on a grade. Once speed was attained we put the third and fourth units in idle for fuel conservation. This method was SPs first attempt at fuel savings.

These engines had lots of issues...ground relays, erratic loading, horizontal and vertical movements. Glad to see them gone !

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> The Southern Railway GP40X and GP50's served them well into the NorfulkSouthern and beyond.

They were purchased mainly to handle Southern's intermodals (pig trains, as we called them then) system-wide. Failed the assignment, poor reliability. Within a few years they were banished to mixed freights and locals. 

BNSF has 2 GP40Xs that have found their way onto various locals and switch jobs around Phoenix in the past year. They call them GP25Xs or something along those lines now. One of them even came back a month or so ago with fresh paint and PTC upgrades, so it would seem BNSF plans on keeping them around for a while. 

arizonaBNSF Wrote:
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> BNSF has 2 GP40Xs that have found their way onto
> various locals and switch jobs around Phoenix in
> the past year. They call them GP25Xs or something
> along those lines now. One of them even came back
> a month or so ago with fresh paint and PTC
> upgrades, so it would seem BNSF plans on keeping
> them around for a while. 

All ten have been overhauled and repainted within the last two years.