Received this today from Bob Bullerman regarding the Wisconsin Central
Motive Power. Be certain to note the ex-Q SD24's.
Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Bullermann [mailto:bob5632@y...]
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 2:51 PM
To: CB&Q Historical Society
Subject: Fw: Wisconsin Central Motive power notes
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff Hampton
To: Tom Hoffmann ; Steve Glischinski ; Pete Stonitsch ; Paul Swanson ; Otto
P. Dobnick ; Mike Schafer ; Jerry Hilton ; Jeff Madden ; John Leopard ; Greg
Mross ; Greg Cochenet ; George Widener ; Denny Hamilton ; Dave Ingles ;
Chuck Porter ; Bob Bullermann ; Bob Baker
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2000 8:27 PM
Subject: Wisconsin Central Motive power notes
Wisconsin Central motive power notes;
* Still scheduled to be scrapped - Ex-FRV GP7 4133 which has been out of
service
and parked at NFDL for a long time now.
* Units recently placed in storage - Ex - FRV GP7 4119 and GP9s 1702, 4508.
no plans to scrap these units yet, their services are just not required
at the present time.
There have also been 5 of the F-units put in temporary storage up at SSM
until the ACR
passenger train season returns to full swing this summer.
And also in and out of storage have been some of the SW1200s, the 1234 &
1236 had been
stored earlier this year. (The SW1500s are heavily favored over the
lower HP SW1200 units)
* The pair of elderly SD24s #2401 & 2402 are still in service mainly as NFDL
pull-down power
in the yard, often paired as a team. Their ultimate fate is still not
certain, but there are no
current plans to use these units for Boise conversions as had been
considered earlier.
They both should be able to continue their long careers until a major
failure makes the decision easy.
* SD45 rebuild program is still in progress although the number of units in
the 2000 budget has been
reduced to eight. The most recent unit to be completed is the 7498, which
is now at re-paint (if you
will remember, this was the first SD45 painted in "old" Maroon & Gold,
with the wide nose stripes,
back in January 1988, when it carried road number 6677).
The 6513 will be the next one to come out as the 7513, bringing the total
number of SD45 graduates
from this program to 38.
* WC/EMD SD80MAC program - The Wisconsin Central is in the final stages of
finalizing an agreement
with EMD where twenty EMD SD80MAC "Power by the Hour" lease units would
be stationed out of
North Fond Du Lac and made available for lease to various other
railroads, mainly via the Chicago
gateway. If this deal does become reality, these units would be
maintained by WCL personnel at
Shops yard and they would of course also be available for the WC to lease
if they so desire.
These SD80MACs would be painted in an EMD scheme (maroon & silver ?), and
the program would
start up this year.
* New SD70 watch, as I had reported in my note of April 9th, next year may
see the purchase of
up to thirty new EMD SD70s. It is still only in the discussion stage,
although those discussions
do appear to be serious. For the WC to be able to swing this purchase,
it would take a very healthy
revenue showing this year, and most likely the postponement of other high
dollar budget projects
around the system to make room for this major motive power purchase.
Another factor that could
alter any plans for a year 2001 WC SD70 purchase would be the success of
the WC/EMD SD80MAC
program described above (if an agreement on that program is reached) and
whether or not the WC just
opts to lease some of those units for their needs.
Regardless of which path the Wisconsin Central decides to take regarding
their future motive power needs they do recognize the fact that their
current fleet of aging SD45s will not be the answer to their main line power
requirements indefinitely. Although the SD45s continue to rack up the miles
for the WC and the various maintenance and rebuild programs have paid off
with good performance in the past, the fleet performance level is declining.
Recent numbers show an average rate of 40 days between failure per unit,
that compares to around 90 days per unit on new power. Not to mention the
unit to unit comparison for the SD45s vs SD70s (approx.. 2 for 3) and
SD80MACs (approx.. 3 for 5).
Jeff Hampton
Hartland, Wisconsin
5/18/2000
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