SD26 and SD39 status

What happened to SD39s 691, 692 & 693? The Guilford locomotive roster webpage says that 692 was "retired". Scrapped? Stored? Any information is appreciated. Also, any photos or videos of 690 would be appreciated by me and other IT fans.

Pictures ->BM692 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPi ... px?id=7051
BM691 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPi ... px?id=7050
BM690 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPi ... px?id=7049
MEC693 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPi ... px?id=7163

Hope that helps!

Edit-

The 692 was (according to Bill Gingrich's GTI locomotive roster) retired sometime in 2002 and cut up and scrapped mid 2004.
Also from his roster The 691 retired October 1995, cut up in early 1996.
And last 693 retired at an unknown time and cut up at an unknown time (the photo trail ends in 1989, but it is still in operation at that time, so i have no clue when it met its end)

Another Edit-I just dug through NE Rail and found this http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20050 ... ODE=&POYE=

if you look you see the 693 listed as oos with a main generator problem in June of '96, also about the same time the photo trail dries up and any photo of 693 taken in '96 show it pretty thoroughly stripped, all the engine room doors are open and the center axles on bothe trucks are gone. I think it is a safe bet that the 693 met its fate soon in 96/97, as it appeared in the deadline for some of 93, alot of 95 and a good chunk of 96.

There, now I hope that helps!

KSmitty, thanks for your research and help. As a former IT employee and railfan, I've wondered about the fate of the former IT SD39s. Looks like the 690 (ex-2301) is working hard most every day. Sister unit 2304 is a BNSF slug; 2305 is now HLCX SD40M-2 9001. Any idea about the "health" of the 690? It was 40 years old last May. Seems like PanAm is ridding itself of 6-axle units. Can it remain on the roster much longer? Time will tell. Thanks again for your information.

SD39 2301 690 wrote:KSmitty, thanks for your research and help. As a former IT employee and railfan, I've wondered about the fate of the former IT SD39s. Looks like the 690 (ex-2301) is working hard most every day. Sister unit 2304 is a BNSF slug; 2305 is now HLCX SD40M-2 9001. Any idea about the "health" of the 690? It was 40 years old last May. Seems like PanAm is ridding itself of 6-axle units. Can it remain on the roster much longer? Time will tell. Thanks again for your information.

Pan Am would like to be an all-GP40 railroad. But since they're too cheap to make the investment necessary to make that happen (to put it bluntly), they continue need EVERY locomotive they currently own. That includes the two SD26's (621 & 643) and roster-unique SD39 690. Because of that situation, and unless they suffer a catastrophic failure, I'd say all three 6-axles Pan Am locos are safe for the time being. But realistically one would have to think that they probably won't last more than another few years at most.

Looks like I am going to look for a source of funding to buy the thing! Would Pam Am be willing to sell it for scrap value?

MR77100 wrote:Looks like I am going to look for a source of funding to buy the thing! Would Pam Am be willing to sell it for scrap value?

Right now it's probably worth a lot more to them than scrap value. The time to make them an offer would be when the unit is sidelined for some kind of major failure, rather than when the unit is up and running.

The thing is, they still have a ton of parts from back when the railroads were all individual companies. When an SD26 breaks down, it's usually out of the shop again within a week. The SD26s are safe as long as they still ahve parts for them as they have 6 axles, put out the same horsepower as a geep, and uses up those spare parts they have lying around

They fixed 690 too after it was out of service for a while. I think their "standardization" approach didn't quite work and they realize that they need to use any engine they can get as all of the engines are getting run into the ground.

Word on the street is that all three of the remaining six-axle units are currently out of service at East Deerfield.

Yep, Bill Gingrich has them as OOS as E. Deerfield. Also, December's loco summary put the total amount of PAR locos out of service as up 6 this last month of 2009.

Things must be getting tough for the people incharge of getting power for trains.

Interesting note, the SD26's were involved in a wreck on the B&O while being delivered to Guilford... A fatal wreck, unfortunately. You can see the roof of the SD26's in this thread...

http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.ph ... 47#p786747

-otto-

Otto,

I am sure others can give you MUCH more information, but here are a few pictures about these locomotives.

Here are pictures of the units after it got to Billerica. It was there for a long period as it slowly got parted out.
ATSF 4645 (to have been ST 630)
http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=14757
http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=29036
ATSF 4618 (to have been ST 625)
http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=13413

Guilford got a Chessie SD35 (WM 7434) as a replacement. They numbered it 614 (right before the SD26 sequence).
Here are pictures of it:
http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=52712
http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=13414
And some further information:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPi ... px?id=7017

(All photos are courtesy of NERAIL and their respective photographers).

- Stephen

Edit:
I checked the above links and they seem to be working, but just in case, here are the full NERAIL links (in the same order as above)
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20030 ... 219032.jpg
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20040 ... 172006.jpg
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20030 ... 815503.jpg
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20050 ... 127798.jpg
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20030 ... 315592.jpg

For some reason, the nerail links do not work. Thanks..

I went to Waterville today, I checked out the deadline 690 was there, it looked to be in fine shape. Like it could run at any time. Even the center axles were there!

The strange thing was the lack of SD26's. I thought I remembered seeing 621, 643 and 690 all on the same trip bound for Waterville dead???
Only 690 was visible, what happened to the 26's?

KSmitty wrote:I went to Waterville today, I checked out the deadline 690 was there, it looked to be in fine shape. Like it could run at any time. Even the center axles were there!

The strange thing was the lack of SD26's. I thought I remembered seeing 621, 643 and 690 all on the same trip bound for Waterville dead???
Only 690 was visible, what happened to the 26's?

Maybe they are already in the shopes being fixed up? haha I sort of doubt this since they just apparently bought 10 sd40-2s from kcs/tfm.....but then again PAR needs all the power it can get...especially 6 axle

Please keep me updated on the 690. In the deadline? Or looked to be in fine shape, like it could run any time. I'm working on finding a potential buyer.
Thanks!
John Howard
South Central Illinois