Maine Central GE U18B Locomotives (MEC 400 - 409)

Here's a current pic I just spotted on railpictures caught me by surprise

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 92&nseq=61

Indeed, it's pretty sad to see them slowly dying at CAD for the last five years or so when the Niagara tourist line went dead...

I saw that one too. Pretty shocking to think there are U18's still out there in factory paint scheme, minus lettering and logos. It was really quite surprising. I thought it was just a high quality photo taken back in the day (I knew this was impossible of course but then again I thought the existence of these engines in their current state and paint was too).

Sigh...

Well, look at the bright side... you're not shaving with them, so there's always a dim, slim chance.

I just wish the 470 Club, Conway Scenic, Maine Eastern or Downeast Scenic Railroad would take notice and (more importantly) have the means to preserve one or both. The U18B is as close to "The Iconic Maine Central Locomotive" as it gets, and it would be a shame if one of the last examples (and one of a darned few U18Bs left anywhere!) is lost to the torch.

Oh, and Gokeefe - that's not the original factory paint scheme they're wearing. The tourist railroad that briefly operated them had them repainted from Guilford gray to a quasi-Maine Central scheme.

jwhite07 wrote:I just wish the 470 Club, Conway Scenic, Maine Eastern or Downeast Scenic Railroad would take notice and (more importantly) have the means to preserve one or both.

Downeast Scenic is aware of the units and I don't think they'd mind having one. I think they're looking into it. Not sure that Maine Eastern would have any interest; Morristown & Erie seems content with the Alcos and EMDs they've got. As for 470 Club, they had a chance to do something about the units back in 2003 and they basically told me where to go. Same story with Conway Scenic.

jwhite07 wrote: The U18B is as close to "The Iconic Maine Central Locomotive" as it gets, and it would be a shame if one of the last examples (and one of a darned few U18Bs left anywhere!) is lost to the torch.

I agree 100%. These were the last brand new locomotives that MEC bought, and on top of that, the U18B was the only North American locomotive ever to use the 8-cylinder FDL engine... so they're pretty special for a number of reasons.

From a practicality standpoint, the units are capable of lugging freight (or people) about as well as a GP38-2, but with significantly better fuel economy.

For those reasons, and many others, I tried my best to save the 407 back in 2003 when Guilford was selling them... but even back then, with the economy doing better than it is now, trying to get people to donate money just wasn't an easy task. And I certainly didn't have the resources to take out a $60K loan and do it by myself! I tried to get the aforementioned organizations on board, but they weren't interested. Conway Scenic told me, in very clear and very unfriendly terms, that they didn't want a GE locomotive (go figure; now they've got 2 of them), and 470 Club... well, like I said, they told me where to go.

jwhite07 wrote:Oh, and Gokeefe - that's not the original factory paint scheme they're wearing. The tourist railroad that briefly operated them had them repainted from Guilford gray to a quasi-Maine Central scheme.

And an interesting bit of trivia about that: Guilford had the specifications for the correct Maine Central colors, but Niagara & Western New York insisted on using their own specs. The result was that the yellow was more of a "creamy mustard" yellow, rather than a "school bus yellow" like the original MEC colors.

I am looking for photos and info, mostly photos, of the above locomotive. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What kind of info are you looking for? Any specific questions?

I had a surprisingly hard time finding photos of 401 on the web, but here are the ones I did find:

http://www.thebluecomet.com/mec401port.jpg

http://www.trainweb.org/trains/MEC/Mec401.jpg

http://www.bkvp.com/mecpics/mec401b.jpg

http://www.bkvp.com/mecpics/mec401.jpg

http://www.bkvp.com/mecpics/mec401c.jpg

http://mainlineseast.railfan.net/MEC401.jpg

Thanks MEC 407 I to had a very hard time finding photos. I had only found one of those pics.
The last one is a unique and very cool photo

Thanks again

Always glad to help.

There's a few more here..

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/mec/mec.html

SteveO wrote:There's a few more here..

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/mec/mec.html

Thanks again

Does any one know what happened to the rest of the u18bs? From what I understand the 404 & 407 are in canada. The 405 & 400 got cut up in Maine. Does any one have any info on the rest of them? Thank you

Here's what I have for the MEC baby boats:

400:1 rebuilt as 400:2 mid 1995
400:2 wrecked 406:1 renumbered as 400:2 mid 1995 and was scrapped soon thereafter
401 retired 11/93, scrapped by Guilford 7/94
402 scrapped by Guilford, don't have a date
403 retired 11/93, scrapped by Guilford 7/94
404 repainted yellow & leased to NIAX 2001, sold 4/02 as RTEX 404, currently in Canada
405 retired 10/95, scrapped by Guilford 3/96
406:1 wrecked, renumbered as 400:2 mid 1995 and was scrapped soon thereafter
406:2 OOS 400:1 rebuilt as 406:2 in 1995, later scrapped by Guilford, don't have a date
407 repainted yellow & leased to 2001, sold 4/02 as RTEX 407, currently in Canada
408 retired 11/93, scrapped by Guilford 9/94
409 retired 11/93, scrapped by Guilford 7/94

All the U18B's were scrapped at Waterville. 404 & 407 (along with U23B 288) actually survived in operation into 2001 and ran with the newly acquired GP40-2W's for a brief period of time.

I think that 406 must've been scrapped in the late '90s ('98 or '99 perhaps? Maybe 2000?) because I remember seeing it MU'd with 404 and 407 a few times during that time period. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of that lashup, but there may be photos on the web that could help determine a rough date of when it was retired.