Eastern Railroad Discussion > Pickens Railroad U18Bs

Saw this pictured on the internet.

Does anyone have the lineage of these units...or know where I can find it?

Pickens 9500 and 9508...particularly.

Thanks for any kind response.

They both started out as Seaboard Coast Line units.

Posted from iPhone

"The Diesel Shop" is a great place to start: https://www.thedieselshop.us/Pickens.HTML  I use it often especially with all the heritage units. I need names not numbers. LOL!
9508 is ex CSX 1932 / SCL 334
9500 is ex CSX 9500(M of W) / SCL 386

Whenever you see a Baby Boat in the U.S., it's probably ex-SCL. RRs in the U.S. bought 118 of them, and 105 of those were SCL. Another 45 went to Mexico. 

ctillnc Wrote:
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> Whenever you see a Baby Boat in the U.S., it's
> probably ex-SCL. RRs in the U.S. bought 118 of
> them, and 105 of those were SCL. Another 45 went
> to Mexico. 

Maine Central and Providence & Worcester also had U18's.

SCL had three variations of U18B - FB2 trucks with a tiny fuel tank for light rail branchlines, FB2 trucks with the standard fuel tank, and EMD trade-in trucks with the standard fuel tank.  I was never a fan of these units, as their deliveries killed off the last of the Alco RS3s working in the Bone Valley (FL).  Here two are working at Plant City (FL) on the former SAL side.  Slide mount says JUN 75.

mike woodruff
north platte ne

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Thank you, very much, for all the information.

The June 2025 issue of Railfan & Railroad had a great article on the Pickens Railroad and U18B's

Pretty sure all the MEC and the P&W U18's have been scrapped. Two MEC's were sold to Niagara Railway (?) but ended up meeting the torch anyway. They were among my favorite Maine Central power.

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Pretty sure all the MEC and the P&W U18's have
> been scrapped. Two MEC's were sold to Niagara
> Railway (?) but ended up meeting the torch anyway.
> They were among my favorite Maine Central power.

In 1975, MEC was suffering through the Ford recession, but sending this was a nice gesture to a high-schooler inquiring about future employment.

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When I worked for CSX as an intern in the early 90's, I recall a train ride I took from Busch Yard in Jacksonville on what was cheekily referred to by the crew and dispatchers as the "Fernandina Rocket."  We departed Busch Yard with 5 U18Bs and a long train of forest products and other freight.  If I recall correctly, only 2 or 3 of the units were still running upon our arrival at Fernandina.  One of the units caught fire, and another just decided to shut down (engineer wasn't able to get it going again).  The crew joked that this train always had a lot of power assigned to it because by the time it got to destination, most were dead in tow.  Good times!

CSX needed to try some maintenance. The CSX Power in Pool service, especially the supposedly "better"  EMD's were crap. Same now, as some trains needed extra power  added to attempt to make it in.

crazy_train_999 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When I worked for CSX as an intern in the early
> 90's, I recall a train ride I took from Busch Yard
> in Jacksonville on what was cheekily referred to
> by the crew and dispatchers as the "Fernandina
> Rocket."  We departed Busch Yard with 5 U18Bs and
> a long train of forest products and other
> freight.  If I recall correctly, only 2 or 3 of
> the units were still running upon our arrival at
> Fernandina.  One of the units caught fire, and
> another just decided to shut down (engineer wasn't
> able to get it going again).  The crew joked that
> this train always had a lot of power assigned to
> it because by the time it got to destination, most
> were dead in tow.  Good times!

I was Conductor on a work train going to claim scrap from a wreck on Deane Mountain in Eastern Kentucky on the EB&V sub.....it barely pulled six gondolas and a knuckle boom that rode on the sides.....moreover....the floor was so rotten I could see the first traction motor just by looking fhrough the hole....I miss those little devils. 

swaool Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SCL had three variations of U18B - FB2 trucks with
> a tiny fuel tank for light rail branchlines, FB2
> trucks with the standard fuel tank, and EMD
> trade-in trucks with the standard fuel tank.  I
> was never a fan of these units, as their
> deliveries killed off the last of the Alco RS3s
> working in the Bone Valley (FL).  Here two are
> working at Plant City (FL) on the former SAL
> side.  Slide mount says JUN 75.
>
> mike woodruff
> north platte ne

I'd love to know if there was some sort of axle loading differences or something with the FB2 trucks vs the AAR trucks with the small fuel tank.

Uh, axle loading is the locomotive weight divided by the number of axles so it shouldn't make
a huge amount of difference unless one truck style was much heavier. The reason for the truck
change vs axle loading is one style might truck better on marginal track and as such would
defer some of the axle loading issues.

Out