Whats Going To Happen With All Of The P40'S

The third-rail was taken out before last Spring. Any rescuing duties will probably be performed by them MP15Bs with their low emissions.

If third rail is still ther extend it to secaucus and station two dual modes there and two at sunny side. Could the third rail be put on generators in case of another blackout like last year.?

As far as Mr RP's Idea to have spare engines sitting around, no way jose.
at 4.8 milion a pop nobody will order P32acdm's just as protect power.
and wire damage rarely shuts down all tracks, so every one has to wait their turn. nobody will even move trains on tracks that actualy have the wire damage due to hanging parts and personal all over the place.

So, it "ain't gonna happen then", right? that's fine.

All right then, although I think my idea will ultimately down the road fall into place and maybe then after Amtrak get rid of some locomotives, they will then start improving their motive power.

Rail4Life wrote:If third rail is still ther extend it to secaucus and station two dual modes there and two at sunny side. Could the third rail be put on generators in case of another blackout like last year.?

I already told you that the third rail is gone. And IIRC the PRR catenary was not affected by that blackout. Not to mention that DRN already said that dual-modes will never be used as protect power due to their capital expense. (As for dual-modes, it is and has always been possible to build ones that work from catenary wire; in-the-box thinking may be thrown out at this point.)

I keep reading about freight RR's that are short motive power - can't Amtrak loan out some of these excess P40 units. Seems like Gunn has advertised "we have some spare locos" but nothing more seems to come of it. I realize the P40s probably lack the ideal horsepower - but couldn't this be an option? Or does the sales/leasback arrangement limit Amtrak's use of loaning out the units.... Some RR's seem to be utilizing the old F40s.

For some reason, the monocoque frame of the P40's makes them unsuitable for freight operations, or so I've read. I'm not sure why.

the car body has nothing to do with it unless switching is involved, then regulation steps are required at all 4 corners of locomotive. but I doubt that GE left the lease in such a way that locomotives geared for 103 mph can be used for freight.
Besides there are enough commuter agencies looking for power.
I know one Agency who is negotiating for 10 units.

Dut, I'm sure the MBTA could use some. But who do you know of that is interested in 10, Metro-North?

Well Conndot just had 60 million to spend to get a temporary fleet (2000 seats)to tide them over till M8's are ordered and online. they bought 38 VRE Marfesa single level commuter cars giving them 3800 seats. they do however not have power to pull these 38 cars.
the GP40ph-2's short out catenary in summer so they are useless., If Conndot bought 10 P40's they could put them in general fleet for MNCR use. freeing up Dual mode genesis to run with these 38 coaches/cabcars.
MNCR has about 33 cars being freed up on west of Hudson service, these could be used on all shuttle trains freeing up their regular Bomb cars for GCT service.
all this can be done for around 20 million with 40 million left over for tech. modifications and stuffr like Acess etc.

The third rail was left in place and energized for one reason, to enable a
DC locomotive(s) to enter the North River (Hudson River) Tunnels for the
purpose of wire train doing repairs and maintenance to the overhead
wires.
The P.R.R. kept a pair of DD-1's for this purpose for a long time and after
the Penn-Central merger, the DD-1's went to the museum and a N.Y.C.
T motor took the place of them.
Eventually, it was deemed un-necessary to maintain the third rail just for
this purpose and diesels were used on the wire train if it was necessary to
work inside the tunnels.
On the New Jersey side, the third rail ended just an engine length or two
outside of the tunnel.
Noel Weaver

hey Dutch, just remember to be careful in using abbreviations......... I know that "Bomb" was short for Bombardier, but when you mention that along with GCT..............who know's who might start investigating you nowadays. lol

We still use the term even on radio in GCT it drives cops up the wall

?????????

GP40's short out catenary in the summer?

How does that work, or should I say, doesn't work???

At NJT and in teh former PRR territory, we don't have any problems with ours in the summer, how does it effect teh catenary? Is there less overhead clearence adn the wires run really close to the top of the loco?

Correct on New Haven line the clearance is so low(its oldest electrification on NEC) that at overhead bridges the catenary clearance is only at 15' 6"
in Summer with the slightest temperature changes the catenary droops and diesels like the SLE's GP40Ph-2 and even the F40PHI's leased last year short out.
Both the F40's actually had their Airconditioners ript off by wire.
only way to raise the wire is to rebuilt every bridge and overpass to newer heights.

Wow, yea, I guess that could be a problem, a BIG problem!!!

Thanks for the info Dutch