Railroad Forums 

  • CP put their SD60 for sale

  • Discussion relating to the past and present operations of CPR. Official web site can be found here: CPR.CA. Includes Kansas City Southern.
Discussion relating to the past and present operations of CPR. Official web site can be found here: CPR.CA. Includes Kansas City Southern.

Moderators: Komachi, Ken V

 #1197322  by CPHOG
 
I honestly think, the Soo line, the DME and all the ICE lines will be up for sale by the time this is all said and done, i work out of St paul and have never in my entire career seen CP turining and dropping bussiness as they have been in the past 6 months, another carrier such as UP will probally scoop up most of us,,, sad to say and hear,,, this is what exactly happened to the milwaukee road..............
 #1198137  by Jmusolf
 
CPHOG wrote:I honestly think, the Soo line, the DME and all the ICE lines will be up for sale by the time this is all said and done, i work out of St paul and have never in my entire career seen CP turining and dropping bussiness as they have been in the past 6 months, another carrier such as UP will probally scoop up most of us,,, sad to say and hear,,, this is what exactly happened to the milwaukee road..............
You know, if that did happen I'd be ok with that if it meant the Soo Line name would return and get all their old lines back. It's possible since the Soo technically exists on paper as a US subsidiary. But I highly doubt that'd happen, just wishful thinking from an overzealous Soo fan :)
 #1207433  by Engineer Spike
 
I don't think the US lines will be sold. Why would they be looking at regional roads? Hunter filled in some strategic gaps at CN this way.


is a direct route from Chicago to the west coast. DME has ethanol plants, and grain traffic. ICE gives a line to KC, plus a second line to Chicago. I think they are getting rid of the less profitable traffic, in order to concentrate on profitable unit trains.


The SOO MP15ACs are for sale too. I saw several of them in Montreal recently, but they are now gone.
 #1227638  by Engineer Spike
 
I was on the CPR site, and it showed the SD60s for sale. Since then I have spotted several at Canadian Allied Diesel, which is in Lachine, QC, along the Adirondack Sub. A friend who is a manager in the mechanical department said the rebuilding continues at CAD. It seems like there are more floating around on various trains lately.
 #1228270  by lock4244
 
They're all (or mostly) being returned to service as CP has been caught power short. This includes both the rebuilt CP 62** series and the unrebuilt SOO 60** series. All four unrebuilt units that were languishing in the deadline at Agincourt (Toronto Yard), well the deadline on the Havelock Sub main, have been pulled and placed back in service. SOO 6037 made a trip to Thunder Bay and returned behind CP 8717 on a 608 crude train, but was pulled off in Toronto and was seen at the shop. Road failure perhaps? No shock there... 18 or so months of storage will do that. IIRC, SOO 6035 is making a similar trek. The other two pulled were SOO 6027 and SOO 6044. The SOO 6044 was caught on a train 246 through Guelph Jct (Ontario) in a motley consist that must have made the crew so pleased (sarcasm)... CP 1521, SLH 5651, SOO 6044, CP 3114 (GP9u, SD40-2, SD60, GP38-2). Of these, the 3114 would be in the best shape being rebuilt in the last few years (2009 or 2010) and low mileage since that time (used on locals in Ontario, often on the 10mph Havelock Sub trains).
 #1235548  by Minneapolitan
 
If this is true about CP selling their SD60s, I'd believe it. Not because that makes sense, but because it doesn't. That's Canadian Pacific.

Occasionally, these SD60s make their way onto the DM&E. They're always welcomed. Here on the DM&E, we have crap. Absolute crap. Our SD40s have been run into the ground (sometimes literally) for decades. The original DME SD40s still in use were mostly from the Milwaukee Road, who deferred maintenance way back then. The independent DM&E did what they could, but now CP has completely neglected them. Most ICE SD40s came from the BN. They seem slightly better but serious wear and neglect is showing more and more. All over the DM&E/IC&E system there are locomotives that won't load amps, bad traction motors that must be cut out, water leaking to the point where they must be shut down, bad antennas, etc etc etc... Many of them just don't pull as well as they used to. This is all happening en route, by the way.

For those unfamiliar with the DM&E, don't be fooled by the stereotypical flat Midwestern prairie. The DM&E has big hills in Minnesota alone that are a constant plague on our operations so long as we have crappy locomotives. Going west out of the Mississippi Valley is a massive hill. We've had locomotives blow with oil everywhere not even ten miles from departure in Minn City. Westbound trains also struggle between Rochester and Byron and just west of New Ulm. Eastbound trains are even more likely to stall. Lime Hill east of Mankato kills at least one train a week. Between Rochester and Eyota is one massive ascending grade known as "Haverhill." St. Charles Hill isn't quite as bad but does have curves. I've been lucky - I've only stalled once but it was on St. Charles Hill.

These stalls and mechanical failures are regular on the DM&E. They delay everything. Crews reach their twelve hours and have to be recrewed. All other trains get delayed. Wayfreights are taken off their work serving customers to use their power to help. Yards get backed up because trains must continue without adding tonnage.

It's ridiculous. This is no way to run a railroad. The DM&E is profitable but it NEEDS better locomotives. Only CP could consider selling off good power while the DM&E starves. Harrison claims the CP is going to use every resource it has to turn things around. Pffft.
 #1235777  by Jmusolf
 
Minneapolitan wrote:If this is true about CP selling their SD60s, I'd believe it. Not because that makes sense, but because it doesn't. That's Canadian Pacific.

Occasionally, these SD60s make their way onto the DM&E. They're always welcomed. Here on the DM&E, we have crap. Absolute crap. Our SD40s have been run into the ground (sometimes literally) for decades. The original DME SD40s still in use were mostly from the Milwaukee Road, who deferred maintenance way back then. The independent DM&E did what they could, but now CP has completely neglected them. Most ICE SD40s came from the BN. They seem slightly better but serious wear and neglect is showing more and more. All over the DM&E/IC&E system there are locomotives that won't load amps, bad traction motors that must be cut out, water leaking to the point where they must be shut down, bad antennas, etc etc etc... Many of them just don't pull as well as they used to. This is all happening en route, by the way.

For those unfamiliar with the DM&E, don't be fooled by the stereotypical flat Midwestern prairie. The DM&E has big hills in Minnesota alone that are a constant plague on our operations so long as we have crappy locomotives. Going west out of the Mississippi Valley is a massive hill. We've had locomotives blow with oil everywhere not even ten miles from departure in Minn City. Westbound trains also struggle between Rochester and Byron and just west of New Ulm. Eastbound trains are even more likely to stall. Lime Hill east of Mankato kills at least one train a week. Between Rochester and Eyota is one massive ascending grade known as "Haverhill." St. Charles Hill isn't quite as bad but does have curves. I've been lucky - I've only stalled once but it was on St. Charles Hill.

These stalls and mechanical failures are regular on the DM&E. They delay everything. Crews reach their twelve hours and have to be recrewed. All other trains get delayed. Wayfreights are taken off their work serving customers to use their power to help. Yards get backed up because trains must continue without adding tonnage.

It's ridiculous. This is no way to run a railroad. The DM&E is profitable but it NEEDS better locomotives. Only CP could consider selling off good power while the DM&E starves. Harrison claims the CP is going to use every resource it has to turn things around. Pffft.
Just wondering since I don't work for the railroad but how are you guys liking the SD30C-ECO's? I haven't seen them on the DM&E since summer but if you've ran them were they any better than the SD40's/SD60's?

Also noticed more AC4400CW's are on the DM&E these days so hopefully those will show up more and give you guys better power. Those seem worn too but are probably better than what you have now!
 #1235860  by Minneapolitan
 
Well, first off, nobody really knows (or cares) what they do or what they're called. I know that may come as a surprise to many foamers out there, but most railroaders don't really know all the intricate details of specific locomotive models the way foamers do. I had to google "SD30C-eco" just to see what you're talking about.

We had two of those six-axle units earlier this year running the B26/B27 job between Waseca and Winona. CP 5002 and CP 5006, I believe. Those were good pullers and they were clean inside - with air conditioning! But the four-axle units suck. They only get used in the yard which is the last place they should be. They're slow to load which just doesn't work in a place like the yard where people move fast and want to get work finished. Because they load slow, it's a real pain in the ass to kick cars with. We do a lot of kicking. The older units react instantly to the engineer's controls - the way it should be.