Railroad Forums 

  • MARC GP40 & GP39 status

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

 #1054025  by ns3010
 
How many are still on MARC property? I have sixteen units confirmed as leaving Maryland, with no trace of the other three. In addition to 68, 60 and 69 are the two I have no records of.
 #1056599  by ns3010
 
Yeah, I knew the 39's were staying. I meant the 40's. Sorry, should have been more specific...
 #1058365  by strench707
 
There is still a MARC GP40WH-2 sitting in the Odenton, MD MoW base. A couple of weeks ago I also saw a GP40WH-2 parked in the small MARC yard near Track 7 in Union Station, it may have been the same one and was moved to Odenton. I assume they keep it around as a protect unit or Amtrak uses it for work train service. Did not catch the engine # either time, sorry.

Davis
 #1224570  by dt_rt40
 
Cor Blimey. You have to be the first international tourist ever to have traveled to DC just to see our lowly MARC commuter rail system.
Anyhow, hope you got to see something of interest. FWIW I hardly ever seen the old MARC diesels anymore...I thought one was still used for switching at Union Station but my memory could be from earlier this summer.
 #1224855  by amtrakhogger
 
The 68 usually is assigned to Odenton for protect/work train service.
 #1231689  by realtype
 
A few weeks ago I took a day trip to NYC and on the way back to WAS on the last Regional of the night we passed a broken down train at Perryville station (we stopped to drop off a mechanic). It looks like they sent the GP40 (and Acela Express trainset) to rescue the train. I'm sure Amtrak is finding it pretty useful also when there are power outages along the NEC in MD, DE, and PA. I sometimes see it parked at Ivy CIty.
 #1232971  by dt_rt40
 
realtype I'm confused by your account...do you mean you were on the Acela that dropped off the mechanic (presumably he got on at Wilm.) at Perryville...or that an Acela literally was driven up the corridor to deal with MARC passengers? That would have been hilarious! I think you can't mean that, because, how would they get people on & off?
About 4 years ago though, I remember the old late, late MARC couldn't reach Perryville because of a mechanical problem. It was snowy and I'd missed the 8:37 Amtrak/MARC-monthly from Aberdeen. There was an announcement that an Amtrak train would be stopping to pick us up. A few minutes later an Acela was slowing down approaching the station. I thought, you gotta be kidding me? It's almost unprecedented to see Acelas running slowly on the part of the NEC...I'd never seen it before or since in fact. So I really wondered if they would have the Acela pick us up. Just as the engine passed the center of the platform though, it quickly accelerated again! About 30 minutes later we were picked up by long distance train, maybe the Cardinal? The other notable time that train couldn't make it, we were loaded onto a MTA bus, which was given a speeding ticket on 95 by an MDTA cop about a mile north of the tolls! Hilarious! Didn't get to DC until about noon.
Oh well, if it did happen, I'm glad some northern Penn line MARC pax got the glamorous experience of riding the "Aceler" as they call it.
(no, if you can't tell by now, I'm not from Harco/CecilCo)
 #1233609  by strench707
 
I'm guessing that disabled MARC train was just going to deadhead back to Baltimore considering the time of night you were out there. No pax involved....

Davis
 #1249001  by realtype
 
dt_rt40 wrote:realtype I'm confused by your account...do you mean you were on the Acela that dropped off the mechanic (presumably he got on at Wilm.) at Perryville...or that an Acela literally was driven up the corridor to deal with MARC passengers? That would have been hilarious! I think you can't mean that, because, how would they get people on & off?
About 4 years ago though, I remember the old late, late MARC couldn't reach Perryville because of a mechanical problem. It was snowy and I'd missed the 8:37 Amtrak/MARC-monthly from Aberdeen. There was an announcement that an Amtrak train would be stopping to pick us up. A few minutes later an Acela was slowing down approaching the station. I thought, you gotta be kidding me? It's almost unprecedented to see Acelas running slowly on the part of the NEC...I'd never seen it before or since in fact. So I really wondered if they would have the Acela pick us up. Just as the engine passed the center of the platform though, it quickly accelerated again! About 30 minutes later we were picked up by long distance train, maybe the Cardinal? The other notable time that train couldn't make it, we were loaded onto a MTA bus, which was given a speeding ticket on 95 by an MDTA cop about a mile north of the tolls! Hilarious! Didn't get to DC until about noon.
Oh well, if it did happen, I'm glad some northern Penn line MARC pax got the glamorous experience of riding the "Aceler" as they call it.
(no, if you can't tell by now, I'm not from Harco/CecilCo)
(Sorry for the very late response)

From what I heard from our conductor and saw when we passed the site it looked like there was a broken down Regional (NB) and an Acela Express trainset was sent to rescue the passengers along with the MARC GP40 to rescue the broken down Regional. So they were actually Amtrak passengers. However, there have been rare occasions when Acela sets have carried MARC passengers including this one caught on video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVadTNeqjjg :-D
 #1249722  by CentralValleyRail
 
realtype wrote:
dt_rt40 wrote:realtype I'm confused by your account...do you mean you were on the Acela that dropped off the mechanic (presumably he got on at Wilm.) at Perryville...or that an Acela literally was driven up the corridor to deal with MARC passengers? That would have been hilarious! I think you can't mean that, because, how would they get people on & off?
About 4 years ago though, I remember the old late, late MARC couldn't reach Perryville because of a mechanical problem. It was snowy and I'd missed the 8:37 Amtrak/MARC-monthly from Aberdeen. There was an announcement that an Amtrak train would be stopping to pick us up. A few minutes later an Acela was slowing down approaching the station. I thought, you gotta be kidding me? It's almost unprecedented to see Acelas running slowly on the part of the NEC...I'd never seen it before or since in fact. So I really wondered if they would have the Acela pick us up. Just as the engine passed the center of the platform though, it quickly accelerated again! About 30 minutes later we were picked up by long distance train, maybe the Cardinal? The other notable time that train couldn't make it, we were loaded onto a MTA bus, which was given a speeding ticket on 95 by an MDTA cop about a mile north of the tolls! Hilarious! Didn't get to DC until about noon.
Oh well, if it did happen, I'm glad some northern Penn line MARC pax got the glamorous experience of riding the "Aceler" as they call it.
(no, if you can't tell by now, I'm not from Harco/CecilCo)
(Sorry for the very late response)

From what I heard from our conductor and saw when we passed the site it looked like there was a broken down Regional (NB) and an Acela Express trainset was sent to rescue the passengers along with the MARC GP40 to rescue the broken down Regional. So they were actually Amtrak passengers. However, there have been rare occasions when Acela sets have carried MARC passengers including this one caught on video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVadTNeqjjg :-D






One night late last March I was on 2128 the 8:00pm New York bound out of DC. The 7:35 Penn Line was cancelled and they were debating what to do with the passengers. My girlfriend and I were the only ones sitting in the first car until a storm of people come up track 17 or 18. They announce that the Marc passengers will be allowed on the train and that we will only be stopping at Baltimore. Train loads up we leave at 8:00pm arrive at Baltimore at 8:29pm sat there for a good 6-7 minutes unloading all the MARC folks. In fact I helped the conductor with the doors that night. Might've been a conductor short that night. Once everyone was off the front car I gave him a wave with a pocket flash light I had and away we went. 4 of us in the first car for the rest of the trip. Whole train had maybe 100 people on it for the rest of the way up to New York Penn. We made up some good time and arrived in New York 8 minutes early.
 #1275513  by amtrakhogger
 
jt42cwr wrote:Does MARC still have any GP40's on it's roster or have they all gone elsewhere now?
They have one, the 68, which is used as a protect/work train unit.
 #1276271  by realtype
 
In addition to some units spending a few years in Boston with MBTA, eight of the retired MARC GP40's were apparently rebuilt into MPI MP32PH-Q's for Sunrail in Orlando. These things just keep going!

Image

Some recent videos of MARC 68 in service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MN42ET9EKM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IvCGiJDIO4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMokZOD9_uM