Status of the GP7s and GP9s

Hi Newpy!.....I think part of me hates to see the 621 and 643 got to scrap because there are none left in the country and the problems that they had as far as power, could have been fixed thus they would have engines available for service...They don't spend 100 grand for used power...They will spend 60 grand or less and by somebody's white lined junk and hope they can keep them running and take parts off of stuff that is stored....and it just continues...I really did like using the geep
9's for switching at Rigby...If you had two together you had good power and braking and they were just great for kicking.
Alot of the guys that I worked with felt the same way and when I mentioned it to management, they took them away...From me anyway! hehehhehe. But kicking cars is another story that I don't like because of the danger involved....
Rigby needs to be modernized! I could go on...but I get carried away sometimes!

I have to agree with BR4 that anything GE is pretty much shot down before it is mentioned, PAR/GRS has stated they are out to standardize on 16-645E3's, ideally the 4 axle variety but those are rather pricey at this point. That is also a good reason to scrap the 35's/7's/26's/39/45. The 9's well, they are just so damn bulletproof, they have earned a spot low on the scrapping list. The interesting thing will be if more 40's of one type or another show up. A few more and anything not 40 series would be gone.

Eventually, assuming PAR is here for a good long time (30+ years already, I think its safe to assume) even SD40-2's are gonna become hard to find, so I wonder how far away 710 power locomotives are?

Also, to bring us way back to topic, I have heard 'officially' that the 12 & 15 are gone. Though I will include the standard disclaimer *take it with a grain of salt...

KSmitty wrote:...so I wonder how far away 710 power locomotives are?

I imagine that in 10 or 15 years, we might see PAR (if it still exists as we know it today) picking up their first SD60. Keep in mind, the SD60 will be about 35 years old at that time -- that's about the same age as the 500-series GP40-2Ws currently.

In the meantime, there's still a lot of SD40-2s for them to choose from, so they've got some time before they need to start looking at 710s.

10-15 years from now would be an interesting dilemma since GE has had a hold on the market since the '80's. So, the EMD choices would be "elderly" 40's - not unlike the 45's they got in the mid '80's; or whatever 60's/70's they can find which by then will be in pretty poor shape and possibly in need of Tier emission upgrade (just guessing). OK - I'm rambling and off-topic, but this company needs a motive power plan that doesn't include a patchwork, obsolete roster. Rant over - RIP GP-9's...............

BR4 wrote:"It wouldn't hurt them to splurge a little and buy some non rentawreck used units, such as some NS C40-8's. They had hundreds of them sitting."

Except that PAR is looking to standardize their fleet to EMD 645 powered units. One of the reasons they decommissioned the 35's, whixh are 567 powered.

That is a good point. What they should and will do are two different things!

I would think the biggest hold-up would be the fact they would either need to train the diesel mechanics (or gasp, hire some) to learn the GE prime movers. As for parts, if they bought enough units, those wouldn't be a problem.

Tim Mullins wrote:Hi Newpy!.....I think part of me hates to see the 621 and 643 got to scrap because there are none left in the country and the problems that they had as far as power, could have been fixed thus they would have engines available for service...They don't spend 100 grand for used power...They will spend 60 grand or less and by somebody's white lined junk and hope they can keep them running and take parts off of stuff that is stored....and it just continues...I really did like using the geep
9's for switching at Rigby...If you had two together you had good power and braking and they were just great for kicking.
Alot of the guys that I worked with felt the same way and when I mentioned it to management, they took them away...From me anyway! hehehhehe. But kicking cars is another story that I don't like because of the danger involved....
Rigby needs to be modernized! I could go on...but I get carried away sometimes!

We loved the 9s paired together on the hump at Deerfield too. Great braking and never had a problem pulling it seemed. When I first started we had the 681 on the hump. It was on the ground more than the rails, lol.

They definitely would have needed to do extensive work to the SD26s and 39's to get them to be worth anything. Granted I was a conductor but whenever they rated us for the full tonnage we always had a problem if we had one in the consist. They would load at 10 mph but once you got over 12 mph or so the amp meter wouldn't go above 1,000 lol.

Hmmmm. 10-15 years from now, the NS ponies might be ruling the roost
from Ayer to Rigby and the NBSR might handling the state of Maine. Even
Mr. Mellon is not getting any younger. He might just take the money and
run by then.

They could have bought some SD-90's!!!!....They were plenty of them out there!.....Ya, the Sd-26's would pull anything at 10 mph, but there again they could have been fixed....I think their power was purposely derated because half the railroad
(or more) is 10mph...The 690 would ground fault at a certain ampredge and instead of fixing the problem the aultered the amps so that it would 'nt get that high...so what you end up doing is wasting fuel out the stack and not getting the power you were calling for.

Ah yes, we blew the 690 up at West Deerfield a few years before it got retired. Just notched up going through Wisdom Way and then it caught on fire, lol.

Dick H, we can only hope so!

OH!....Your the one that blew it up!....I wondered what ever happened to that thing.

Honestly I don't understand why they want to get rid of the GP9's. They are such a perfect fit when it comes to switching and they still seem to run well.

The only place I'm surprised they bumped the 9s from were the "paper" branches. They were ideal for the light rail weight and were pretty dependable especially in a duo. Not to mention, they kept even a few extra '40s available for mainline duty. I noticed a couple of the 9s recently had brake work and pads done. One that seems to never die is the 77. I keep hearing it pop up on weekend MD-1s out of Waterville every so often. Unfortunately, unless in a serious bind, I don't expect we'll ever hear them on SAPPI again.

GP9 #71 was leased to New England Milling on March 25
filling in for NEMCO's Switcher #1000. AFAIK it is still there.
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20110 ... O&BOOL=ALL

Even though I didn't go out anywhere today, I still had the scanner going. District 1 was fairly busy with MD-1, SAPPI-4, WANM, NM-1 and perhaps another OT job were a few of the ones mentioned. Point of interest was the MD-1, with what sounded like 52 as its leader in Oakland this afternoon. That is one that's not on the list of retirees last time I checked.

J Bray

There was quite a bit of action in District 1 today, and it sounded as if MD-1 was in Oakland, ME with the #52. That is one that's not officially retired or scrapped yet last time I checked.

J Bray