M&E Acquires Additional Locomotives

[mwhite]

Any chance one or two these will be on the Rockland Branch? I ran all of these when I worked up at MMA.

[therudycometh]

Great news, Rudy! Had an inkling the M&E would be at the MMA auction for this power. The 7u's are some pretty neat units with their "topeka" cabs and "liberator" exhaust stack setup. Was under the impression that MU and A/C was added during the rebuild, but they retained the 567, albeit with the Dash-2 electronics cab.

While everyone else is throwing in their 2-cents on what a for-profit railroad should do with their power, I'll vote that 2 should be kept for parts so as to get #22 on the road!

Since these never operated on lines with cab signaling, will they be stationed remotely on the D&R / HB or captive to the mo-town line?

They may have actually kept the 567 during the rebuild, but they have 645's now.... not sure if that was an afterthought or a BAR modification or what.

22 doesn't need parts, 22 needs time and money. All the parts are there!

Cab signals will be added!

Any chance one or two these will be on the Rockland Branch? I ran all of these when I worked up at MMA.

Pretty sure at least one of them is headed your way.

[thebigham]

Great news!

I thought for sure these units were sold to scrappers!

Thanks, M&E.

Chris

[kilroy]

"Pretty sure at least one of them is headed your way."

Think you'll have it up there and running when I get up there for vacation next week??

[MEC407]

It would take Pan Am several weeks just to move it from NMJ to Brunswick...

[BigDell]

It's surreal, in and of itself, that we are able to "celebrate" a local railroad acquiring GP7's for revenue use. I mean - think about it. M&E are getting GP7's to run "for real" in 2014. Of course they are rebuilds and all. Even better. It's just very surreal and not what I expected when I hit the boards this morning. Looking forward to have something fun and different to shoot when they go online. They look handsome in the M&E colors.

[ns3010]

Is there any timeline on when these will head south from Maine?

[therudycometh]

No word yet on the timeline, but M&E mechanical crews are in Derby as we speak getting them ready to move.

Trust me, I'm about as excited as you guys to see some GP7's running side-by-side with our Alcos.

[MEC407]

What is the likelihood that one of the geeps would ever be MU'd with one of the Alcos? (In the past I've read stories about early Alcos and early EMDs not getting along very well with each other. I'm not sure if that applies to the later Century models, or to heavily modernized geeps like the ones we're discussing here...)

Thanks for taking the time to answer our numerous questions, Rudy... we all greatly appreciate it!

[therudycometh]

What is the likelihood that one of the geeps would ever be MU'd with one of the Alcos? (In the past I've read stories about early Alcos and early EMDs not getting along very well with each other. I'm not sure if that applies to the later Century models, or to heavily modernized geeps like the ones we're discussing here...)

Sheesh, we don't even have them on the property yet and you're already asking what we're going to MU them with?

We're going to MU all four of the new Geeps together, along with both C424's. We'll throw in our SW1500 just for fun, and if we're really bored, we'll pull the GP9, M420, and both FL9's out of Maine and MU them all together too. Now we've got 11 locomotives MU'ed together, rolling around the NJ Transit system like a street gang at 65 miles an hour, just searching for little unsuspecting freight cars to prey on.

[MEC407]

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[JPG76]

Hmm, the M&E is expanding it's locomotive fleet and adding cab signal equipment to them. I'm kind of thinking other rumors I've heard might actually be true and may materialize in the not too distant future.

[therudycometh]

Hmm, the M&E is expanding it's locomotive fleet and adding cab signal equipment to them. I'm kind of thinking other rumors I've heard might actually be true and may materialize in the not too distant future.

What other rumors would those be?

[kilroy]

Rudy, correct me if I'm wrong but don't they need cab signals to run on NJT trackage here in "Joisey"?

[therudycometh]

Rudy, correct me if I'm wrong but don't they need cab signals to run on NJT trackage here in "Joisey"?

Yes, they do. 18, 19, and 20 all have NJT cab signals installed.