Eastern Railroad Discussion > World's Last Living C39-8

Would be delighted to be corrected if I am wrong, but I believe this Pennsylvania Northeastern unit is the only reamining servicable C39-8 left.

These locomotives first arrived on the scene in the exact period of time when I stopped railfanning. I have photos of Conrail Dash 7s up the wazoo, but the original Dash 8s I have nothing on. First time I saw these is distinctively locked in my memory because I was going to my grandfather's funeral when I passed a pair of pristine Conrail Dash 8s in Beacon Park Yard. Of course I wasn't considering shooting them that day (or even that trip), but I remember taking my mind off the weight of the actual moment and deciding I was going to get out and shoot trains again. That didn't happen for another eleven years and by then I was in California and my connections to the east coast were gone. So the early Dash 8 has always fascinated me, so much so that this was my third time going to Lansdale PA to try and get a photo of one. As I drove up the morning of 10/25 it looked like luck was with me. The engine seemed like it was lit and a clean shot from the garage... but no. The nose was in the pedestrian bridge shadow and the lit side had a cut of cars against it. Still, even though I had to shoot most of these with an iPhone (due to the tight mesh fencing on the pedestrian bridge), I was pretty happy with getting these, enough so I decided to share them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/19 10:49 by erielackawanna.

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One last view, this one from the DSLR.

 

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Looks good. 

The original version is also easy on a railfan's eyes.

Oak Island yard, Newark, New Jersey.
March, 1987.

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Well done. Your caption makes this even better.
Bob

Many of the C39-8's were purchased and shipped to South America.


Chris Toth
NSDash9.com

overniteman Wrote:
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> Looks good. 
>
> The original version is also easy on a railfan's
> eyes.
>
> Oak Island yard, Newark, New Jersey.
> March, 1987.

Bet that’s the same paint.

Posted from iPhone

Nice shots of the last one working in the US. Funny how it looks worse (in terms of rust) than the ones I just saw in the world's epicenter of living C39-8's, Peru. They are the primary power on the Ferrocarril Central Andino's incredible, difficult route across the Andes. I'm going to post a bunch of photos and videos eventually on the International board, but for now, here is a shot of the 1030, which wears a commemorative Conrail scheme, and two others at the Balta yard. Technically these are all C39-8P's, the railroads rebuilt ex-NS C39-8's, modified for the clearances on a section of the route from this location up to the summit at Galeria tunnel. There are unrebuilt C39-8's that are swapped out for use on the other sections of the railroad. At this yard they often change power to non-clearance modified engines like that for the run down to Lima. There are also rebuilt C30M-7's made from C30-7's and B36-7's, but articles I read had FCCA management describing the C39's as the preferred power for their better tractive effort and dynamics. Seems like there are somewhere between 10-15 of the C39-8/8P's in service on FCCA.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/19 20:08 by inCHI.

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You tube has quite a few video clips of the FCCA C39-8 engines in action in Peru. Very hard working railroad action to see there on that line.

I think the shots are great, especially the perspective.

I want to see that in action before it gets deactivated.

Posted from Android

On a side note all of the ex Milwaukee SDL-39 are alive and well in Chile on the FEPASA railroad. Youtube has some very excellent clips of them in action.

gg1tim Wrote:
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> You tube has quite a few video clips of the FCCA
> C39-8 engines in action in Peru. Very hard working
> railroad action to see there on that line.

I'll have some 4k uploads of them on there sometime soon, still working on the editing.