Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX Starting to Retire Slug Units

CSX GP30 Road Slug 2309 is the first known unit of its class to be retired and was in transit to LTEX in Lordstown, OH today on Q348 along with GP40-2 6404, GP15-1 1540, SD50 8560 and SD60 8708. Future not looking bright for certain CSX locos.

Joe Tarantine

fatnrat Wrote:
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> not looking bright for certain CSX locos.
>
> Joe Tarantine

I'll 2nd that. I will miss one day when someday in the future, most EMD's will be all gone and will be just left with GE's. Seeing Tier 4's all the time will get very boring fast. And it already is.

I not a loco nut, but I do observe. Seems to me that CSX's slug-sets have been very successful and versatile. They made a lot of sense, for mine runs, heavy switching and locals, even emergency helpers. They have been used in my area regularly. But, CSX, in its infinite corporate wisdom, has stationed 2 big six axles for use in Wilsmere EB yard to be handled by two crews. They are generally are used about 18 hours a day, rest of the time at idle or shut off, only a few moves might require more than a slug set could provide. For this week it has been 5327 & 5113. I'm surprised the Hunter regime and followers have not caught up with this.

The slugs are horrible to the crews, example - cant run heat in both units or batts wont charge and the heat provided wont win prizes.

Does that apply to the cabbed units NS has, or just the CSX ones?

junctiontower Wrote:
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> Does that apply to the cabbed units NS has, or
> just the CSX ones?


Just the CSX ones. NS still using theirs.

Joe Tarantine

Are there other known slugs being retired or just the 2309?

Loco-cam.....I did not know about the heat issue. Should not both crew members be in the same cab during most situations? If they are, is their adequate heat to one cab or the other? If not, seems to me mechanical could fix this...............correct if I am wrong.

fatnrat Wrote:
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> junctiontower Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Does that apply to the cabbed units NS has, or
> > just the CSX ones?
>
>
> Just the CSX ones. NS still using theirs.
>
> Joe Tarantine

Sorry, I meant whether the heating issues were shared by both railroad's slugs.

The CSX slugs were designed I think by Morrison Knudsen...and were done largely on the cheap. You have to realize that the auxiliary alternator on a typical GP type locomotive has a capacity that is adequate for house power, control electronics, and battery charging. You dump a complete second cab, with full house power, a certain amount of electrical stuff, and no additional power generation, and you have an overloaded system. They did their job but only just. And the slug end was often a second generation GP, and so by now are VERY old. At some point they are just beyond rebuilding, especially if gensets ever get of the ground and become ubiquitous...you can MU a couple of those and you have the same capabilities as a mother and slug.

These were originally built to work for fifteen years. Almost thirty years later I think they got their money's worth out of them and then some.

Jim

JLinDE Wrote:
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> Loco-cam.....I did not know about the heat issue.
> Should not both crew members be in the same cab
> during most situations? If they are, is their
> adequate heat to one cab or the other? If not,
> seems to me mechanical could fix
> this...............correct if I am wrong.

In yard and industry work conductor is on the ground or in the rear unit most of the time, also when its cold it takes a long time to heat up the steel cab and your changing ends frequently. So yea, heat at both ends would be nice, and as others have said there just ain't enough juice to run all the 74 volt stuff.