GP15-1s & B40-8s

Why did Norfolk Southern retire all of their B40-8s and GP15-1s? Did NS not renew the -8s lease? Were the GP15-1s too low horsepower and too slippery to be of much use?

Alot of the GP15-1's were just pieces of crap, especially the ones I worked on at Edgemoor yard in Delaware. As far as the B40's, they were much the same as the GP15's.

I agree. As I said on the EMD forum - the Gp15's wouldnt pull a greased string out of a sick cat's ass. NS got rid of them due to lack of dynamic brakes, low horsepower and the fact they are DC locomotives with more expensive to maintain DC generators. As for the B40's the asking buyout price was too high for 18 year old GE's and with only 18 on the roster they were semi orphans - and yes they were complete junk. My buddies on CSX are cursing their decision to buy them.
larry

what makes b40-8 so much different than c40-8?

B40-8's have a total of 4 axles and C40-8s have 6 axles.

Why would they retire B-40-8's and keep the B-32-8's?

The buyout price at the end of the lease was probably a better deal.

Most railroads lease their new engines from a bank for a set period of time, just like leasing an automobile, at the end of the lease they have the opportunity to buy it for a given price or return it to the lessor. What does a single locomotive cost these days? Six million? 10? Multiply that over 100 new locomotives and you see why they lease rather than buy. The added expense is more than justified by the savings in initial expenditure.

Now when NS didn't buy the B40s the bank or corporation that owned them then had to sell them. Given their age and condition I doubt they were able to get the price that NS turned them down at. CSX already has a lot of these units (remember the NYS&W's?) and apparently likes them, so when 18 more came up for sale, cheap, it was a no-brainer to buy more.

As for the GP15s, it seems like the philosophy on most class-1s is that if a job is so small it only needs a 1500-HP unit to do the work, it's not worth the time and expense to service that customer. Plus the units are 30 years old and pretty well worn out. Overhauled/reconditoned, they're worth some money on smaller operations where they can replace GP7/8/9/10 type units on a one-for-one basis. In theory, they should be less expensive to maintain because they're newer and parts should be more readily available for them.

charlie6017 wrote:B40-8's have a total of 4 axles and C40-8s have 6 axles.

thanks for nothing, very uninformative.

Ok, way rude. You asked a question and got an answer, how is that uninformative?

es80ac wrote:thanks for nothing, very uninformative.

Then look it up on the internet, you very juvenile dweeb!

charlie6017 wrote:

es80ac wrote:thanks for nothing, very uninformative.

Then look it up on the internet, you very juvenile dweeb!

I asked what makes a c40-8 so much more successful than a b40-8 on NS. Nobody asked for your smart a$$ remark. If you don't have anything informative to say, don't pretend to be a know it all and insult other people's intelligence.

if you got too much time on your hand, try spending it by washing out your foul mouth with a toilet cleaner

Then look it up on the internet, you very juvenile dweeb![/quote]

I asked what makes a c40-8 so much more successful than a b40-8, nobody asked for your smart a$$ remark. If you don't have anything informative to say, don't pretend to be a know it all.

By the way, try wash out your foul mouth with a toilet cleaner if you got too much time on your hand[/quote]


no , you asked "what makes b40-8 so much different than c40-8?"

you asked nothing about why one was more successful than the other.

nsrayman wrote:Then look it up on the internet, you very juvenile dweeb!

I asked what makes a c40-8 so much more successful than a b40-8, nobody asked for your smart a$$ remark. If you don't have anything informative to say, don't pretend to be a know it all.

By the way, try wash out your foul mouth with a toilet cleaner if you got too much time on your hand[/quote]


no , you asked "what makes b40-8 so much different than c40-8?"

you asked nothing about why one was more successful than the other.[/quote]

If you look at the topic of thread, isn't this very obviously implied? What makes c40-8 so loved and b40-8 so hated?

No it doesn't say that anywhere, but here's a technical reason as to their differences.

A 4 axle locomotive is given a B designation, while a 6 axle locomotive is given a C desigantion. 8 axles are Ds, etc.

6 axle units tend to have better traction, and can keep something moving, and tend to have fewer wheelslip problems compared to their 4 axle counterparts.

As for why they kept the B32-8s, their lease may not be up yet, or they have better traction since it's fewer HP/Axle. (800 as opposed to 1000)

Hope that helped.

es80ac wrote:

charlie6017 wrote:

es80ac wrote:thanks for nothing, very uninformative.

Then look it up on the internet, you very juvenile dweeb!

I asked what makes a c40-8 so much more successful than a b40-8 on NS. Nobody asked for your smart a$$ remark. If you don't have anything informative to say, don't pretend to be a know it all and insult other people's intelligence.

if you got too much time on your hand, try spending it by washing out your foul mouth with a toilet cleaner

You're the one who started it--not me, the you had asked--what makes such and such engines MORE SUCCESSFUL you would have gotten a better answer!

Why don't you look on Wikipedia??

BTW, I don't pretend to be a know-it-all. So don't even go there.......I try to help people with basic answers and that's all I was trying to do here. You asked a basic question and you got a basic answer!