PAR Locomotive Fleet - General Discussion

Looks like the 616 is on the move back to home rail...

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Does anyone know why PAR 515 has been sitting in Somerville this last week with a small mixed consist?

After big weather events the outlying areas of the system are lost causes for a week, or more. Sucks to be a Pan Am customer.

Apparently, out of 113 active locomotives, 37 have froze up and are out of service. Some have run out of fuel, others may have had other trouble. But that is a lot. 1/3 of the fleet is down. Now you know why all the trains are parked.

Mikejf wrote:Apparently, out of 113 active locomotives, 37 have froze up and are out of service. Some have run out of fuel, others may have had other trouble. But that is a lot. 1/3 of the fleet is down. Now you know why all the trains are parked.

PanAm is investing in DMU freight. Each of their boxcars will be equipped with traction motors. Acceleration will be incredibly efficient and quick.

We don't need no stinkin' locomotives!

Correct me if I'm wrong but PAR selling and leasing back locomotives reminds me of MILW doing the same with rolling stock just before they went bankrupt. This locomotive thing is small scale (at the moment), but how sustainable is it? Would running an RR of this size on purely leased power be a good idea?

Depends on the terms of the lease. But even a leased locomotive can freeze.

double-ended plows working lawrence yard friday evening

DogBert wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong but PAR selling and leasing back locomotives reminds me of MILW doing the same with rolling stock just before they went bankrupt. This locomotive thing is small scale (at the moment), but how sustainable is it? Would running an RR of this size on purely leased power be a good idea?

I was thinking the same thing! For many years Guilford had a policy of owning their all motive power outright and leasing nothing. That is the reason they got rid of many classes of motive power including B&M GP38-2's, GP39-2's, GP40-2's, and some others. It was cheaper to purchase replacement GP35's and GP40's than to buy out the leases of what they already had. Now, that policy seems to have been turned on its head. They seem to be inching toward leasing everything and owning nothing. I'm no expert, but that looks like short term gain at the expense of the long term.

(one of the) dumbest things they ever did is get rid of all that -2 power that was only ~15 years old and turn around and buy Penn Central/N&W junk that has been beat to hell hauling coal down south for 25 years. It has haunted them since it was done.

newpylong wrote:(one of the) dumbest things they ever did is get rid of all that -2 power that was only ~15 years old and turn around and buy Penn Central/N&W junk that has been beat to hell hauling coal down south for 25 years. It has haunted them since it was done.

I have always wondered how in the world they figured running the railroad with 40 to 50 year old beat-to-hell GP40's with minimal maintenance as the backbone of the fleet was sustainable in the long run. Obviously it's not, and that might be one of the reasons for the shift in policy toward running the railroad with leased and run-through foreign power.

I might add that it may have made sense to dump the newer power at the time it was done back in the 1990's, because they got replacement power "on the cheap" in lieu of higher cost lease payments or buy-outs. Where that line of thinking started running aground was in Guilford/PAR never having any realistic plans to upgrade or improve that older power. Over the years they did things like engine change-outs and APU installations in some of them, but seldom any more than was absolutely necessary just to keep them running, if that. The current condition of PAR-owned locomotives is the result, and that speaks for itself.

newpylong wrote:(one of the) dumbest things they ever did is get rid of all that -2 power that was only ~15 years old and turn around and buy Penn Central/N&W junk that has been beat to hell hauling coal down south for 25 years. It has haunted them since it was done.

That's what happens when there's a Penn Central guy running the place.

Don't look now, but it looks like another LTE refugee is coming
to PAR/PAS...LTEX 3280 waybilled to Rotterdam Jct! Wheee!!!!

D

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MEC407 wrote:http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4048636

haha, another UP magic marker special