F40C-Sold unit locations?

Milwaukee_F40C wrote:First of all I never knew why 610 was separated from the group, I guess if it hadn't failed then it would have gone with the others to Helm? I wonder if Metra is obtaining parts from NRE for 611 and 614 and that's why it hasn't been scrapped.

Here's something interesting. Some pictures on rrpicturearchives have photographs of F40Cs in storage at a location near Kansas City, instead of East St. Louis. The photos are several years old but it's possible that the Helm group was split up:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=377907
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... x?id=94877
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=377909

MSN maps birds eye view shows about five F40C's plus the F45 at East St. Louis, in pieces:
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

These were most likely scrapped but that leaves some unaccounted for, especially if some ended up in Kansas City.

600, 605, 607, 612, 613 - Kansas City (didn't KCS run them in freight service (or consider it) for awhile?)
601 (http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=770495), 609 (http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=527259) - East. St. Louis
Unknown: 602, 603, 604, 606, 608 - at least some of which (if not all) probably ended up in East St. Louis/Helm
610 - NRE
611 and 614 - in operation
byte: you mentioned old satellite imagery showing F40C's visible in East St. Louis. Do you know how many were there?

They were all (the twelve Helm units) initially shipped there. Some were presumably shipped to the Helm facility in KC when the KCS pondered using them in B-unit service, but that fell through when someone realized that they weren't geared for freight and re-gearing all of them wouldn't be cost-effective. A while back I remember hearing that some went to Mt. Vernon (IL) as well, though I don't know if Helm has a facility there. I might just be confusing it with something else.

http://www.izaakwaltoninn.com/gn441.htm GN 441 F45 is the engine that got the grilles. But it is a railfans amazing bedroom. You sleep in the engine compartment and the cab is in perfect condition. Also it overlooks right next to the BNSF Hi-Line.

But why were no railroads able to do anything with these? Scrapper prices too high for HELM? Were they having that many engine problems to just be destroyed?

Demand for commuter units is certainly higher than its ever been in the past several decades, but it appears most agencies are buying new rather than used (four or five years ago I made a prediction, on this very board, that the F40Cs would almost certainly be bought by another agency within a few years - time to eat crow). That's not helping any potential sale, and neither is the fact that they share many common parts with most 1970s EMD freight units out there. Even if someone was interested in buying the whole fleet, Helm might make more money in the long run by breaking them down and selling the major components (prime movers, generators, trucks, etc) piece by piece to regional railroads who still roster and maintain large fleets of second-generation EMD power.

You're probably right, unfortunately. Hopefully, Metra will see the error of their ways and keep the last two functional F40Cs operational. Management should bite the bullet and put them through the rebuild program. They are mechanically equivalent to the F40PHs, so it shouldn't be a major problem, the main difference being the C-C trucks.

F40CFan wrote:Hopefully, Metra will see the error of their ways and keep the last two functional F40Cs operational. Management should bite the bullet and put them through the rebuild program.

Unfortunately, I don't see this happening. If Metra had any intentions of keeping the C's around... they would not have purchased two ex-Amtrak F40's. Once 215/216 get to Chicago, there is a possibility that 611 and 614 could go back to the sidelines.. depending on how many units Progress can handle.

metraRI wrote:Once 215/216 get to Chicago, there is a possibility that 611 and 614 could go back to the sidelines.. depending on how many units Progress can handle.

I'm sure you're right, but it doesn't cost anything to dream.....

They probably should keep them anyway for replacing the MPs when they go through rebuild.

They should at least get the two old girls down to the Illinois Railway Museum, im quite sure the people there would gladly accept both of them, considering that they are native to the state

HondaPilot4life wrote:They should at least get the two old girls down to the Illinois Railway Museum, im quite sure the people there would gladly accept both of them, considering that they are native to the state

That would be nice eventually, but I think they still have a lot of "revenue running" left in them. I've ridden behind them recently and they still pull like champions.