What is an F40C?

A Northeasterner who never has ventured in any state north of Tennesee, west of Ohio, and east of Utah is asking, what is an F40C? How does it differ from an F40PH? Does it have a HEP-package? Why were they retired before the PH's?

They were a C-C 40-series EMD bought by a local authority for MILW commuter service to replace some broke E's, F's, Geeps. There was only about 14 of them, and they had some fluted stainless over approx 2/3 the side of the body. For some reason, they have quite the following around here. Other than the stainless (which doesn't quite fit because it's just a patch, not a line) I can't understand why they have such a following, as it's a C-C 40-series EMD - basically a cowl-body SD40 w/ HEP. I don't dislike them, I just don't see the attraction.

They were retired over the last few years and replaced by MPI's MP36. The F40PH and '-2 variant are both still in service.

The F40C acording to Electro Motive Division's Classic Cowl Units by Sean Graham White and published by Four Ways west. It was a new model Based on SDP40Fs that Amtrak was using at the time the Northwest Suburban Mass Transportation District and North Suburban Mass Transit had plans to provide captial assistance to the Milwakuee Road Chicago Commuter fleet. The F40cs were ordered in 1973 under the numbers 40 to 52 while 53 and 54 were orderd by NSMT.
When Metra came around all of the units were numbered 600 to 614, all units had names of area towns and the side pannels or wash boards was the idea of Two NWSMT board of Director members who were also members of the Illinois Railroad Museum. They wanted the Commuter locos to have stainless steel fluting like the CB&Q E-5 that the museum owns and is the star of several movies and one movie comming up.
M&E if you google F40C or Metra you should find some good sights that have very nice pictures of the Locomotives. There were only 15 built and they stayed in Chicago working from Fox Lake IL and Elgin IL to Chicago.
The units have six wheeled trucks and were fast out of the stations and could keep time, and had very large fuel tanks so they had long range and were the engine of choice on the weekends.
They were interesting to look at and with only 15 they were a treat to see and even better to ride in a train that had one pushing or pulling if they were the engine of the day.
Being Raised by E units and F Units I have to say that these Units could rank high in my top three of passenger units.

Tadman wrote:Other than the stainless (which doesn't quite fit because it's just a patch, not a line)

As built, the stainless extended to the back of the unit which blended nice with the bilevels. Metra tore off the back part so they could paint on their logo, ruining the effect. They really were quite handsome before Metra butchered them.

There are going to be nice looking units to the day there die

Riding behind or getting pushed by A F40C and you were on a straight away with a very good engineer it was as though you were launching in a Colonial Viper off of Any Battlestar and I am talking about the old Battlestar Galatica from 1978 with Loren Greene, they could fly out of the gate and keep speed.
Also I guess the reason that they were well liked was there were only 15, it was like having close to 10,000 Zero Fighters and only 1,000 Shiden Kai fighters built. Or having a carrier with 36 F6Fs and 6 F4U Fighters.
I hope this is helpfull

EMD E Units the P-38 of the railroads

"EMD E Units the P-38 of the railroads"

I second that

Not all of them were "rockets"; 602 was the worst and when retired was down ceveral hundred horsepower.

However, 604 was the fastest unit; you always made time with that one. The F40C's were favored by engineers on express trains, where as the F40PH's were favored for locals because they could accellerate faster then the F40C's. The same goes for the MP36's, they are common on some trains that don't even "need" to have one for fuel reasons; like the 5:17 expresss to Big Timber, all that set does is come in the next morning and that's it.