C39-8 survivor.

ToledoTerminalRy wrote:

scottychaos wrote:
well.."some" is relative..there are also "some" GP7's still in service!

what percentage of -7's are still running compared to what percentage of -8's?
I dont know..but probably a higher percentage of -8's, as compared to the percentage of total -8's built, are still running today simply because they are newer...the "service life" of -7's and -8's is probably about the same. I have never seen any indication that -8's have been "retired early" significantly more than -7's..

IMO, these -8's are pretty sucessful..lots of other diesel classes were totally retired before they ran out 20 years in service..
latest numbers say 77 C39-8's are still opearting, out of 161 total built..
thats just under 50% still in service after 20 years..
probably an average service life for just about any diesel type.

I bet less than 50% of SD50's from the class of 1985 are still running today.

Scot

Better yet How about SD45's? they were horrible right from the gun because the long crankshafts kept breaking and were sold off pretty quickly, also had an oddball motor in them compared to the engines of the time.

Ryan

SD45's were not horrible because of a crankshaft failure here and there. SD45 with its original V20-645E3B will outrun any unit on the road today. they're performance was great. Even today with some SD45's left in the rail world re-powered, rebuilt, and electronics upgrades they are still around not bad for a unit introduced in 1966

so now at the end of 2007, are ANY of the NS or conrail 39-8's in service??

According to www.nsdash9.com NS 8612 and 8620 are the only units on the active roster that are not stored. NS 8671 is the only C39-8E stored, but it is still on the active roster.
www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=45841
NOTE: I just noticed that 8612 & 8620 (last C39-8s still running around) are kind of fugly.
www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=585795
www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=780937

Those last two definitely aren't the prettiest of the bunch.

thats sad, the old conrail c39's sure did look pretty leading. I caught 8210 at vickers the last time I was in ohio. real nice unit. oh well.. looks like the fleet will be bland for the future.

These units are way past their prime. They have never been liked by most NS engineers since they started arriving on the railroad in 1984. They are slow as all get out to load up (try switching with one), ride rough, have the most ill fitting doors (and not easy for a big man to squeeze through) and they arent overly reliable. I myself have only run a couple but I do not care for them nor the C40-8's for that matter. If I get a GE I prefer the GEVO's then Dash 9's. The C39's have lasted 21-23 years - a longer than usual lifespan for class 1 GE's.
Larry

Here is an unlikely new career for a pair of C39-8s: power for a luxury passenger train.

The Charleston Gazette wrote:Next summer, travelers will have a chance to hop aboard a luxury train at Union Station in Washington, D.C., and travel in style to The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs.
...
The train -- powered by two diesel electric C39-8 locomotives -- will shuttle up to 240 passengers.

Read more at: http://wvgazette.com/News/201106221220

The project has been delayed:

The Mercury wrote:Work on refurbishing passenger rail cars for the luxurious Greenbrier Express has stopped, and 21 of the workers there have been laid off, the entrepreneur in charge of the project has confirmed.

Ross Rowland, who in February began hiring workers to refurbish 15 passenger cars in a portion of the former Bethlehem Steel plant to be used on an exclusive luxury rail line between the resort and Washington, D.C., confirmed the news this week.

Crews had just about finished all the demolition work on the inside of the cars and were getting ready to prepare the cars for the second phase, installing the new interiors.

He said 21 workers have been laid off, but 17 have been kept on to do “engineering work.”

The problem, Rowland said, is rules issued by the Federal Railroad Administration that require that the equipment and furnishings in the cars be designed to withstand extremely high impacts.

Read more at: http://pottsmerc.com/articles/2011/11/1 ... 323847.txt

Thanks to Mr. Mike Derrick of LocoNotes for the article link.

The C39-8s are up for sale, it seems:

http://railswap.org/cb/cl/classifieds.c ... =retrieval


Asking price seems a bit high... :-\

Not sure if they're the same units, but the Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway has recently purchased three C39-8s. See the MMA forum for more info.

First post in this thread, from 2006:

scottychaos wrote:Among the last of her kind, 20 year-old Norfolk Southern C39-8 #8202 idles away the weekend in Sayre, PA.

She was built in 1986 as Conrail 6004.

Recent reports say only 13 C39-8's are still operating, and all of them with NS. anyone have recent data on their status?



*snip*

Six years later, she is still alive!

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 399&nseq=2

Scot

Thanks for the update, Scot! I was going to post something similar about 8202 but you beat me to it.

MMA should have two more C39-8s coming into service pretty soon.

I'm at the opposite end of Maine (several hours south of MMA territory) otherwise I'd be taking pictures of them. I've always wanted to see one in action.