RRPX # 557 SW1200

[steve coraggio]

Hello All,
I'm new to this forum I work near the M&E line in Whippany and today Tuesday March 13, 2007 ariund 12:30pm on thracks behind Apollo Drive in Whippany was RRPX # 557 an SW1200, Black wirth yellow striping it was stopped for a while, as some pictures were taken of the engine.
Does anyone know if teh M&E is going to purchase that engine or is it a lease? What is the railroad origin of this engine. If anyone knows I can be contacted at [email protected] thank You Steve Coraggio

[RS115]

Steve, the engine is ex-Amtrak. RRPX is an affiliated company for lack of a detail understanding of who owns actually owns what. The last couple of engines that came out of the shop - 557 and it's sister 563 (I think) carry the RRPX marks rather than M&E markings.

I saw it out on the road today as well - they often use newly shopped engines on the Whippany line for awhile before venturing further afield. It's property they control and they usually have at least one other engine around that can be sent to drag the mess home should there be a road failure. They also sometimes send it out on Transit as a second engine.

I don't know if these switchers retained the cab signals I assume they had when Amtrak property. If not, they can't lead or run solo on Transit. 563 is currently assigned to their Bayway operation - wouldn't be surprised to see this one go down there as well unless they ship it to Maine as part of their Maine being all EMD plan discussed in another thread here.

[mountie17]

Don't forget that 764 also has the RPPX markings.

[steve coraggio]

RS 115
Thank you for the quick response and information, do you you which RR prior to Amtrak had the RRPX 557? It's an older EMD SW1200.
Steve Coraggio [email protected]

[mountie17]

The 557 and sister are SSB1200's, originally from Santa Fe. These and I believe some CF-7s, dont know exact numbers, were swapped for the SDP40F's from Amtrak.

[steve coraggio]

mountie17
Thank you for quick reply Steve Coraggio [email protected]

[RS115]

Rail Road Power Leasing (RRPX) apparently owns a great deal of what we generally think of as being to M&E and Maine Eastern. See http://www.rrpx.com/

There's an old thread on here that discussed this - apparently it's been the case since the acquistion of 16 & 17 back in the early 1980's. Whether there is another company out there that owns the equipment not shown here I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised.

[mainetrain]

The following is from the morning of Friday, March 9th