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  • EMD SD40 series official thread (covers all variations)

  • Discussion of Electro-Motive locomotive products and technology, past and present. Official web site can be found here: http://www.emdiesels.com/.
Discussion of Electro-Motive locomotive products and technology, past and present. Official web site can be found here: http://www.emdiesels.com/.

Moderator: GOLDEN-ARM

 #760245  by Triplex
 
http://www.thedieselshop.us/NYSW.HTML
No SD45T-2s listed here.
 #766859  by Jtgshu
 
its been reported on a few other sites (loco notes, trainorders, etc) that UP has decided that they want to get some more life out of the SD40-2 fleet and that they have decided to rebuild up to 500 units over the next 10 years. Many of these units have currently been stored or even retired already by the UP.

It seems that the units will have upgraded emission controls to be compliant with new tier 2 standards...from what I have noticed, it doesn't seem like they are going to be ECO rebuilds, but rather rebuilt 645s with the newly approved add on emission controls.

Anyone here have any more details about the plan?

With BNSF buying seemingly all the GP38s it can find, and this plan from UP, that maybe the newest locos aren't as cost effective as once thought?
 #767087  by Allen Hazen
 
Or at least that new locomotives are SO expensive that even Union Pacific doesn't want to buy them for anything but mainline service.

500 units is about 1/15 of Union Pacific's fleet. Given Uncle Pete's "Unlimited Power" Usual Predilections, rebuilt SD-40-2 might be their idea of power for heavy switching, transfer, and local freight service!
 #767103  by Jtgshu
 
While lots of other railroads have rebuilt their second generation units, I can't think of any project that has been undertaken recently that is this massive. Of course, its supposedly over 10 years, so lots of things could change inbetween now and then.

But I find it remarkable that a 40 year old locomotive (not all of them are that old of course, but the -2 line is) is going to be given such a renewal by a Class 1 RR.

IMO, it shows how specialized the newer units are. They are very good at what they are designed to do, which is move freights along the RR. But how good are they at doing everything else? The SD40-2 might not be the best road loco, might not be the best yard loco, might not be the best local service loco, but it can still do all of those things very well.

My RR (a commuter RR) has recently had a shift as well, with its GP40s - a few years ago, the plan was to retire all the Geeps ("old, worn out 40 plus year old locos" they claimed) with brand new passenger power, which were to be wide body locos. But they recently have totally rebuilt 2 OOS locos of the fleet, and decided on a new maintence schedule/renewal program because they found that the fleet really wasn't as bad as they wanted it to be. Not to mention, the locos can be used for passenger trains, work trains, drilling, relay moves, whatever. the new crap can't.....they are passenger locos and thats it. After the first order of them (the PL42AC by Alstom) was delivered, and literally years of "teething problems" more units of them were no longer an option. The new switch engines bought have also had some of the same problems. So what do they do when they are short power? Grab a Geep - for a work train, passenger train or switch loco...can't do that with the other locos.
 #767300  by MEC407
 
I wonder what effect this will have on the pricing of SD40-2s currently on the market. They've been dirt cheap for the past few years; with this sudden (and massive) "vote of confidence" from UP, will SD40-2 prices go up, much like GP38/GP38-2 prices have?
 #782224  by Jtgshu
 
On the loconotes group, it was reported that the first SD40-2 has been brought in for rebuild, the UP3654

The rebuild looks to be quite extensive, as it will be getting among lots of other things

a new prime mover
a new main generator
all new traction motors
new trucks (im assuming they would totally rebuild the truck assemblies)
sandblasting and repainting

and most importantly....
Air conditioning! (and a new cab heater!)

Looks like this is a little more than a "freshening up" or tune up of the locos. Id think it safe to say that these rebuilt locos will be around for at least 20 more years!
 #784378  by Leo_Ames
 
They're replacing the prime mover? Does that mean it's getting a brand new 16 cylinder 645 or they're rebuilding original 645 blocks with new accessories so it's like new?

Or are they going to be styled in the same vein as EMD's Eco rebuild line and will be using a 710? If so, will it be the 8 cylinder model that puts out roughly 2000 hp or the 12 cylinder (I think) model that puts out around 3000?
Last edited by Leo_Ames on Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #784386  by MEC407
 
Rebuilt 645s.
 #933694  by D.Carleton
 
NS and CSX are rebuilding SD40-2’s with new cabs which conform to the latest crash standards. The new cabs on NS are not too dissimilar from the originals while the cabs on CSX look like they came out of a box of Lego’s. My question is: what about other locomotives of that vintage (or older) which are being overhauled and still in service? There are GP38’s, GP40’s, etc. which have the same cab. Will we eventually see new cabs integrated on them?
 #933757  by MEC407
 
It may depend on whether the units are being rebuilt with road service in mind (as seems to be the case with the SD40-2s / SD40-3s) or if they're being rebuilt with yard service in mind (as has often been the case with various GP rebuilds). They may not want to spend the money on new crash-resistant cabs if the units are going to spend most of their time in the yard.
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