I have recently bought an Athearn Santa Fe U33C at a model train show. It's painted in the original Santa Fe colour scheme. I've seen photos of Santa Fe U33Cs operating on Conrail trains. Were they leased out after Santa Fe returned them to GE? Can I prototypically run a Santa Fe U33C on Conrail? Regards Rod Tonkin Perth Western Australia
Prototypically? If you have pictures of a mixed bag of locomotives and sitting in the lash-up of Conrail loco's is a Santa Fe U33C, then you answered your own question. Athearn U33C? Umm, is this HO or N scale?
All of the U33C's were scrapped in 1985. They were off the Santa Fe roster offically in Dec 1984, so they had a small window they could have operated on Conrail before heading to Illinois to await thier fate.
This photo looks like it was taken before the lease was up, so Santa Fe and Conrail could have had a run through power agreement or were just repaying locomotive hours. Either way, its pretty cool. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2611223
Santa Fe used to run trains w/ PC b/4 Conrail & probably did w/ PC predecessor RRs also. This from my friend Jim Fuhrman's website: http://trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain/ Scroll down to 10th line for modeling PC GP38s. He's done a few other PCs as well that he brings to train shows in SoCal.
Don't be quite so sure.... I distinctly remember a long line of U-somethings in ATSF paint at Erie, PA in the dead line, and it seems to me that they were taken back in on trade, and then ended up getting leased back out by GE or Precision National or somebody. Either U33's or SF30C's or both. They didn't go back out in ATSF paint, some GECX or something with a blue body and yellow cab. And they ended up about everywhere as leasers. http://www.qstation.org/U36C/history.html http://atsfrr.net/resources/CrossetGene/master_diesel_roster/U33C/reference.htm I can't find any evidence post-Precision National on the U33C's, but the SF30C's kept going. Here's an LRCX SF30C in Depew, NY. This is what I'm talking about: http://www.rr-roadtrip.com/misc40881b.jpg As far as for pre-retirement, there was a longstanding pool power agreement between ATSF and 'whoever' ran into Elkhart, IN (NYC, PC, Conrail....) between there and Argentine, KS. You'd see ATSF power that far east and 'the other guys' power that far west. Went all the way back into the 1960's. You'll still see it today with NS power showing up on a BNSF train headed for Kansas City. It wasn't particularly common to see anything further east than that, but never say never unless you want photos to appear. I remember a lot of ATSF power in the Elkhart, IN yard on my 1980 trip out there. The further you get into Conrail years, the more common power pooling and locomotive hour paybacks become. About the only distinction was on the Santa Fe years where lead units had to be equipped with Automatic Train Stop (ATS) and cab signals to run between Corwith and KC, that came out in the late 70's I think. OK, here you go. Possibly the ultimate proof: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1096690 If it weren't for the caption, would you believe that's Conrail territory???? And a U30CG to boot? South Bend, IN, 1981, dig that ugly third unit: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=754407 Trailing units, but dig the location! http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1032087
