Retirements and Disposition of CR Equipment

[GP40MC 1116]

Utah Frontrunner Commuter Rail acquired old Comet 1 single level railcars to expand their fleet from New Jersey Transit. These Comet 1's are the original EL/NJDOT style with the long doors without traps. They have integrated them with the existing fleet of Bombardier Bi-Level coaches and it has worked quite well from what I can tell.

[RenegadeMonster]

When looking at older MBTA Commuter Rail pictures you see a lot of pictures of these engines.

MBTA 1100 by David Hawkins, on Flickr


Anyone know what they are? Are any still in service or are they all out of service now. The latest date I have seen that showed one of these engines was sometime around 2004 I think. If they are all out of service when did the last one go out of service?


Also, one thing I have noticed too is all older pictures, including control cabs and F40's all show those grates over the windows. What's their purpose?

[MBTA3247]

Those are the FP10s, which last ran in 1991.

The bars over the windshields are "ghetto grills". They were to prevent the windows being smashed by rocks and other debris hurled at the train.

[RenegadeMonster]

Thanks for the info. I really like the looks of those FP10s. Very nostalgic. Wish they were still around.

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

When the T got rid of them in '91 they went on to Metro North where they were rebuilt once again and put into daily service on the Upper Harlem, Danbury, and Waterbury diesel shuttles until 2008 when they were replaced by new Brookville BL20GH's. A few of them went to MARC too, though they didn't last as long in Maryland as they did on MNRR. There's still several ex-MBTA units operating on various tourist trains.

[RenegadeMonster]

Nice.

What year were they built? Did the T buy new or did they acquire them form the B&M or other railroad?

Also, what's weird, is on other sites I swear I saw photos dated 2003/2004 that showed them at North Station. Pictures were uploaded in the last 5 years so the date couldn't have been the upload date verses date taken. Wonder who these few pictures got that date.

[TomNelligan]

As a historical note, the use of window grates predates the MBTA's takeover of Boston commuter service. The New Haven RR started using them in the late 1960s on some of its freight diesels due to the amount of rocks and junk being hurled at its trains, especially in the South Bronx and Brooklyn. The B&M started using grates on the engineer's windows of RDCs soon after. In the worst example of the problem, in the early 1970s a passenger riding the Amtrak (or maybe it was still PC) TurboTrain was killed at Canton Junction when a vandal lowered a rock on a rope as the train was passing under a bridge, striking the rear dome in which the passenger was sitting. The Turbos then got grates too.

Here's an example of a grated B&M RDC in 1971:

http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=236702

Did the T buy new or did they acquire them form the B&M or other railroad?

They were originally built in the late 1940s as F3 freight units for the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio and were rebuilt into passenger units in 1979 by the ICG's Paducah Shops.

[GP40MC1118]

None of the FP10's went to MARC...Somewhere on one of these boards is my listing of
their dispositions...

D

[RenegadeMonster]

So they were freight first. Interesting. This style of engine always reminds me of passenger.

Were F3's originally mostly freight?

1940's. That's why they look so nostalgic.

These are the same time of engines that the Polar Express in California use for the new revival of passenger service on the Santa Cruz Branch. Been watching videos of that on Youtube recently


That sucks about rocks and that passenger on the dome car. People suck. By the sounds of it they were throwing pretty large rocks at that. Those grades don't look like they could stop anything smaller than a tennis ball. I'm guessing rocks aren't a major issue anymore. When did the T remove these grates from all engines and control cars?

[drvmusic]

Just curious if there's been any movement on the Screamers or if they're still mothballed?

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

Still stored in Rochester at the freight yard in front of the trash-to-energy plant. It's S.O.P. to not dispose until their new replacements have passed enough warranty milestones, so early yet for scrap bids.

Any hopeful notions of rehabbing them went out the door when the much newer -2C's started dropping like flies from way worse wear then ever imagined. If the '88 lineage power is in that dire a condition the '78 power is simply a bridge way too far.

[drvmusic]

Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear they're pretty much doomed. I was hoping (I know, I know) that some heritage railroad would consider '78 long enough to consider at least a couple of them "heritage" worthy and put them into use.

[RenegadeMonster]

What is a "Screamer"? A F40?

[drvmusic]

The original MBTA F40's just recently retired: viewtopic.php?f=65&t=14967" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Backshophoss]

The original F-40ph had a prime mover connected HEP alternator,when on line the prime mover(engine)had to be running at Run 8 (max rpm)
hence the "screamer" tag