Eastern Railroad Discussion > Norfolk Southern's "new" SD90MACs

I was curious how the recently acquired SD90s are performing for their new owner. Considering how problematic they have been, I was very surprised at the announcement that Norfolk Southern was buying them with the intention of rebuilding them into SD70ACes. Canadian Pacific has essentially given up on the model, and Union Pacific seems close behind them. Until Norfolk Southern stepped in, the future for the model seemed very, very bleak. Obviously, NS thinks they can rebuild them into something worthwhile and still do it economically.

I would imagine they are in pretty rough shape at the moment. I realize they have have been in NS hands just a short time, but how have they performed so far? Are they having a lot of failures? What do NS crews think of them? How long is NS going to wait before rebuilding them?

Speaking of SD90MACs in general, what are the causes of the electrical/computer issues these units are plagued with?

Posted from iPhone

Dylan VanAntwerp
Jesup, IA

CP has announced a plan to rebuild their SD90MACs that is similar in concept to NS'.

The ex-UP's are SD9043's aren't they? These weren't the newer ones with all the problems. Crews had some ergonomic issues about them but I didn't hear that they were that troublesome - thus the longevity on the UP.

RWJ

LV95032 Wrote:
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> The ex-UP's are SD9043's aren't they? These
> weren't the newer ones with all the problems.
> Crews had some ergonomic issues about them but I
> didn't hear that they were that troublesome - thus
> the longevity on the UP.
>
> RWJ


No the SD90/43's are a pile of junk too

It's a bad day when a 9043 is on the point.

ppcx032 Wrote:
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> It's a bad day when a 9043 is on the point.


Are they just laid out poorly (everythings in the wrong place and just a PIA to deal with) or to they have bad loading/braking response or other problems. I just love power that responds when ever if feels like it.

LV95032 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The ex-UP's are SD9043's aren't they? These
> weren't the newer ones with all the problems.
> Crews had some ergonomic issues about them but I
> didn't hear that they were that troublesome - thus
> the longevity on the UP.
>
> RWJ

If you do much digging, you will find that the original 4300hp SD90MACs, usually referred to as SD9043s, haven't had a good record for reliability, especially as they aged. Longevity by itself isn't the only yardstick to a model's success or performance; witness their current status on the UP, with many still sitting laid up in deadlines with cracked frames and other issues. Canadian Pacific's SD9043s have been parked for years with just a handful out running in revenue service.

Both Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific ran SD90s out west in the Rockies moving heavy tonnage, and you will see where both railroads eventually moved them out of this service due to poor performance. Union Pacific released their SD9043s from coal service into general freight service around 2008. Note that similar vintage AC4400s of CNW and SP heritage kept right on trucking. Search the archives and you will find engineers complaining about rough-riding SD9043MACs that didn't pull the greatest and often failed because of electrical/computer issues. The CEFX SD90s were so problematic that they were nicknamed 'maroon monsters.'

I'm just curious what exactly is it about SD90s in general that made them so failure prone with computers/electronics? The 4300hp version was essentially a SD75MAC, and the SD75 has never had a stellar record for reliability on ATSF/BNSF. From what I've seen, they both seem to have faulty electronics. Anybody know what specifically?

Posted from iPhone

Dylan VanAntwerp
Jesup, IA

What's the scoop on CP rebuilding theirs? As far as I'm concerned, the SD90's are rough on the crew, but nothing is worse than the isolated cab on a SD70ACe, maybe I just have had several bad experiences... in a row.

The only time i care about failure is when i'm 35,000 feet in the air. There are worst things in life then running a SD9043MAC in making 90k a year.

Frontrunner Wrote:
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> The only time i care about failure is when i'm
> 35,000 feet in the air. There are worst things in
> life then running a SD9043MAC in making 90k a
> year.


That's pretty much how I feel about failures when operating submerged.

Frontrunner Wrote:
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> The only time i care about failure is when i'm
> 35,000 feet in the air. There are worst things in
> life then running a SD9043MAC in making 90k a
> year.

Give me a gevo any day..

Posted from Mobile Safari

Air brake failures, false dragging axle alerts, dropping load, nothing but the best from EMD SD9043MACs.

Plus you get the aroma of toilet and filth from the disgusting cabs, get to enjoy desktop controls, no sidewall heater, and everything is a really bad form of hard cheap plastic. Lots of rattles and bangs inside.

Posted from Android

DG .
Unknown, US

I'm trkspd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Air brake failures, false dragging axle alerts,
> dropping load, nothing but the best from EMD
> SD9043MACs.
>
> Plus you get the aroma of toilet and filth from
> the disgusting cabs, get to enjoy desktop
> controls, no sidewall heater, and everything is a
> really bad form of hard cheap plastic. Lots of
> rattles and bangs inside.
>
> Posted from Android

Don't forget about computer screens that go blank or replace all the values with ?s before they spontaneously crash and put the train into emergency.

Posted from iPhone

Dylan VanAntwerp
Jesup, IA