Providence & Worcester Work Leasers

[ns3010]

P&W B40-8's 4001-4005 are being leased for use on work trains. 4003 was picked up yesterday and should be at BET, with the rest of the units to follow shortly. Not sure if the lease is being handled by the T itself or if by Keolis.

3249 has been out for a while, and apparently both 3247 and 3248 are both down for the count now, leaving only the 904. The main need for the leasers is for use on the Wash Trains, although they may stick around for plow service if the genset(s) and 3247 aren't back when the time comes.

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

Are they just not giving a crap about maintaining the gensets again?

[GP40MC1118]

The 4003 came over to BET Thursday night on the Readville Switcher along with Mass DOT GP40MC's 1117 & 1120.

The Gensets have had very mixed results with the 3248 joining the 3249 in storage last week or so. Not expecting
any revival on these an time soon.

D

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

NRE N-ViroMotive's aren't exactly rare or unproven unicorns; they're pretty much the best-selling gensets in-production today. There's over 180 of that exact 3GS21B make in-service...80% of them rostered with UP, BNSF, and CSX.

What gives? Do they not have the in-house bandwidth to maintain a genset, or did they flat-out order the wrong type of switcher for the type of work they have to do?

[dbperry]

What gives? Do they not have the in-house bandwidth to maintain a genset, or did they flat-out order the wrong type of switcher for the type of work they have to do?

This is completely speculation, but my guess is that they are jammed up keeping the revenue locos in operation with no bandwidth to worry about the work trains.

[GP40MC1118]

The Gensets were terrible at rescuing passenger trains since they couldn't get out of their own way at station stops.
This was apparent early on and there was an unwritten policy not to use them as such.

Who knows what extras the MBTA cobbled into them... i.e. About any locomotive order or rebuild the MBTA does.

They were never well-liked from what I heard. What makes them suited for the UP or BNSF and not for the MBTA
is a $64,000 question. They've probably spent more time out of service than in the past year or so!

D

[8th Notch]

Those 2 lawn mowers were the biggest waste of $$! The way the T uses the work power, they were better off doing something like Amtrak did with the GP38H-3's.

[deathtopumpkins]

3249 has been out for a while, and apparently both 3247 and 3248 are both down for the count now, leaving only the 904. The main need for the leasers is for use on the Wash Trains, although they may stick around for plow service if the genset(s) and 3247 aren't back when the time comes.

3247 was in service as recently as last week. I saw it pushing a work train past Sullivan Thursday morning.

[AmtrakLocomotiveEngineer]

I saw a few pictures on social media last week with the leaser on the rear of a train is push mode. The P&W unit was on the rear of the F40. The two leaders they recently acquired are good for 70mph with a train, so it won't make a big difference since coaches are only good for 80mph.

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

The Gensets were terrible at rescuing passenger trains since they couldn't get out of their own way at station stops.
This was apparent early on and there was an unwritten policy not to use them as such.

Who knows what extras the MBTA cobbled into them... i.e. About any locomotive order or rebuild the MBTA does.

They were never well-liked from what I heard. What makes them suited for the UP or BNSF and not for the MBTA
is a $64,000 question. They've probably spent more time out of service than in the past year or so!

D

Ick...so it was indeed ordering wrong product for the intended job. Most of the N-ViroMotive gensets that UP and BNSF roster are used as switchers in places out west like L.A. basin where the air quality regs are more severely tight. That's the reason for their huge buys of 3GS21B units. Although CSX seems to likes them enough to have bought 16 for itself.


Instead of hanging on for hanging onto sunk cost's sake they should phone up Norfolk Southern for a trade. NS has a couple rostered 3GS21B's of its own, and Altoona will launder anything to anyone as NS's way of currying favor with business parters current or potential. They currently have a supply of 23 stored GP38-2's, all cab signal-equipped, that it's been dipping from as-needed for internal rebuilds and external rebuild-and-sale. They certainly have ample motivation to curry favor with MassDOT as they entrench themselves in the state. 904's last of its kind locally and not going to last forever, and 3247 is so beat-up it's perpetually balky. Gensets + cash in trade for three fresh GP38-2 Altoona rebuilds could be a fair exchange for general-purpose switching and a protect unit for venerable 904. Then maybe they can limit their rentals to just augmenting 3247 with P&W leasers when they need something 3000 HP or better for the work train. At least until some decent-condition secondhand GP40 rebuilds appear on the market like NJ Transit converting a few more retired 'PH-2 revenue units into work engines.

[deathtopumpkins]

Well it seems the P&W leasers are getting some use... Saw one on the "yard" tracks adjacent to Sullivan this morning.

[GP40MC1118]

4003 is on the Northside Work Train and was picking up scrap ties on the Lowell mainline
late morning...

D

[bmcdr]

3247 is blowing oil and leaking water, it hasn't been used by the work train for over a week now. We were using 904 since late last week, but now she is losing water like a murder victim and is vastly underpowered for the work we need her for. That leaves the Gensets, they just SUCK, we've been using P&W 4003 for two days now, and its great to have the power to handle more just 7 ballast hoppers.

[GP40MC1118]

4003 is the power for tomorrow's Worcester Line Stone Train out of BET.
Will be dumping stone between CP-4 and CP-11 and will return to BET when done.
Goes to work 7AM. Crew cabs from Southside, stone gets washed down, then out the
Grand Jct.

Potential of three trains looking to use the Grand Jct tomorrow afternoon - Stone Extra,
CSX B721 and the Sunday early edition of the Readville Switcher.

D

[GP40MC1118]

So much for the Stone Train today. PW 4003 had some sort of mechanical issue and
was shopped. No other engines available, so that was that..