There were 3 different E60 manufacturing batches spread across 2 generations, 4 different total makes/configurations, and 4 different original buyers.
-- Black Mesa & Lake Powell RR's (the Navajo Mine ones) ordered 6
E60C's, built '72-76. Single cab and single pantograph only.
-- Amtrak ordered 7
E60CP's (steam generator) and 19
E60CH's (regular HEP), built '74-76. Double-ended cabs, 2 pantographs.
-- NdeM ordered 39 and Deseret Power RR ordered 2
E60C-2's built '82-83. Double-ended cabs, 2 pantographs.
The BMLP and Amtrak orders overlapping is probably where the testing deficit bit Amtrak in the butt on reliability. BMLP spread a much smaller freight order out over more years to get its warranty mods right on the single-cab version, whereas Amtrak blitzed the full order of their double-cab passenger version before BMLP had fully digested its pilot units. Big and necessary lesson learned here by AMTK for future procurements about allowing enough time for testing cycles.
The E60C-2's are the only make that's still a going concern. Most never saw much service on NdeM because that electric line was never fully completed, and was quickly dieselized for double-stack clearances when the government of Mexico sold that route to KCS during privatization. BMLP bought 8 very low-mileage units and has intermixed them for the last dozen-plus years with its original E60C's. They are now in the process of giving the 6 active units full midlife overhauls into
E60CF's (with the other 2 units scrapped for parts) so it can fully retire the last of its original E60C's (which were down to only a couple working units). Don't know if that rebuild has been completed yet. Deseret bought 5 of NdeM's to expand its fleet. Texas Utilities runs 3 ex-NdeM units on the obscure Martin Lake Line.
Interestingly, AMT ended up with a
half-dozen or so of NdeM's -2's for some new expansion purpose that never materialized; they never ended up running. I'm guessing that unlike the unloved Amtrak units that passed secondhand to NJT, AMT saw the something in the later-generation -2's that would've made for a better passenger locomotive if they were overhauled for HEP. Seems less that the E60 platform was an inherently bad locomotive than the first generation wasn't given enough rope to have its quirks pounded out, and luck/outside circumstances didn't gel in its favor on the follow-through. Especially for the -2's which look like they're going to be around for decades to come.
So, circling back to-topic, unlike the Hippos which never quite worked right as a design, the E60's
did mature with modification into a successful and reliable locomotive. Just not where we expected, or at the scale we expected.
