From the kcsnotes group on Yahoo, this bit of news plus links to pics: There is at least a dozen of them in E. St Louis. http://www.rrpictur earchives. net/showPicture. aspx?id=576722 This view, From Mark Herren, shows 6 of them. This continues on behind the building, then there are 2 others over by the sand/fuel rack. http://www.rrpictur earchives. net/showPicture. aspx?id=576724 Courtesy Mark Herren Further discussion on this group is mostly speculation that these beasts are coming off lease by KCS and are being stored pending lease to another railroad. Is it me, or were the '90MACs born cursed?
There a couple of them parked outside the shops here at Deramus yard. They've been parked there for about a month or better. I believe they also have the EMLX on the nose. If not that then some black lettering in the same place but no black stripe through the UP lettering on the hood. I guess these locomotives just aren't performing as well as the AC's do. ::shrugg:::unsure8ao:
I vote "born cursed" too... It wasn't a popular model to start with... There was such a big race to increase HP. GE made the CW60AC's, and they were not without their problems either. I don't see an ES60AC or SD60ACe being offered,,,,,
How could that not be performing as well as the ACs? They are AC units. That's a really short lease period if they're ending it now. It just started what? 6 months ago? I have a hard time believing they were that bad, After all, UP used them pretty regulalry. Don't know the downtime. Were these ever actually used? maybe they're just getting on property.
In the long run, horsepower usually doesn't mean success. In the late 60s and early 70s, both 3000- and 3600-hp 6-axle units were made in quantity. Which lasted longer?
Technically, they're both lasting the same length of time right? There are still 3600 HP units out on the road and many have been downgraded to 3000HP. In that case, it was the fuel consumption, not unreliability of the platform. Had the 70's not included a gas crisis, it could have been different. Similar the SD80MAC. It's a fine engine, but a fuel hog.
Went by Deramus yard today. You can see a lot sense the locomotive shops are right there. The unit I saw was a UP unit with EMLX on the sides on the nose parked outside on the track right next to the first shop bay. The unit number is 8524 but it doesn't have a black stripe going through the UP name across the side of the hood as shown in the pictures above. It's been there for a good while now and hasn't moved an inch. I don't think it's even been started for that matter. I can't say for sure but I think I may have seen one or two more over on the north end of the yard but was hard to tell because of all the movement going on.
Yep, the NREX leasers are the B39-8s that were orignially leased by BN back in the day. And the KCS engineers thought the SD90MACs were bad........hoo boy!
Went by Deramus yard today going to and from work. I saw 3 more EMLX units on the shop tracks with the black stripe on the sides. two were numbered 8560 and 8542(?) if I'm not mistaking on the last one but could not see the number on the third unit hiding behind the main office building.