Official M2 / M4 / M6 Retirement Thread

Jeff Smith wrote:

Tadman wrote:It's important to remember what a heavy rebuild or overhaul really means. It's not some magic wand the railroad waves, writes a check for 20% of the price of a new car, and gets a new car from an old car. If that were the case, the railroad would just keep rebuilding ACMU's and Stillwell cars.

I'm still ticked the 1100's and 4400's are gone.

Is it CSOR taking them up the NHHS line to Springfield? I'd like to catch that one day.

Yep. They usually do a stopover in Hartford yard before getting taken to West Springfield for the CSX handoff.

I have seen them in the Hartford yard, its actually sort of weird seeing them out of their "natural habitat".

I'm still ticked the 1100's and 4400's are gone.

Hey, you're talking to a guy who loves electric MU's. I feel you. I just found out my weekend jaunt to the dunes is by car rather than electric train. No smiley face here... That said, I've got dinner along the tracks secured (and paid for by others) so I can't complain too much.

Any M2's or M4's retired recently
Have seen video of a bl20gh 127 pulling 4 or 5 toward New Haven
Hope the M6's will be around for a while

Tadman wrote:It's important to remember what a heavy rebuild or overhaul really means. It's not some magic wand the railroad waves, writes a check for 20% of the price of a new car, and gets a new car from an old car. If that were the case, the railroad would just keep rebuilding ACMU's and Stillwell cars.

But that's not the case.

A rebuild means totally stripping the car of it's interior and electrical components. Lifting it off its trucks and pulling off the draft gear. The trucks are rebuilt (which could be hundreds of man-hour each, alone). So in the end a real proper rebuild means a total tear-down and re-assembly, along with new draft gear, upholstery, motors, wheels, windows, control devices... Pretty soon you're not too far from the price of a new railcar. Problem is, you're left with a 30 year old body shell. Although stainless doesn't rust, it can corrode and fatigue. This means there's still points of entry for water, rodents, dirt... You also have to bolt everything back together, and the bolt holes are all stretched and mounting points fatigued...

Bottom line is we're talking about an expensive and time-consuming process, not a Maaco paint job and a broom-out. The railroad brass will sit down and compare the financial sense in heavy rebuild versus new-build, and make a decision. It's no different than the time ATSF or BNSF people sat down and decided to rebuild GP7 or GP30, or buy new power from EMD. For some reason you never hear anybody griping that BNSF doesn't run stack trains with CF7's. There may be different politics at play, but there's always politics at play (the class I's aren't exempt from politics. CP's stance on EMD after the SD90 debacle is a bit like Amtrak's stance on BBD).

Excuse my ignorance, but what's BBD?

Bombardier?

You got it.

This past week on Monday 05/13 GP35R #101 the Stamford switcher went up to New Haven as it took Cars #8556/8815/8446/8447 for scrap.

8447-8446, 8815-8556, 8844-???? (sorry missed the number here), and 8507-8848 went west on CSX Q425-06 out of Springfield today, all restenciled FICX.

Any more M2's-M4'sM6's retired

8800-8804 will be heading for scraping with 126 leading them

hope they take # 126 off before it gets there....we still need it.

I assume and correct me if I'm wrong doesn't the M2's M4's and M6's that are getting scrapped get picked up in New Haven by CSX for scrapping

you are correct, as MNCR does not serve Ohio.

Any videos of the move
By metro North to New Haven