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SD90MAC to SD70ACU
Norfolk Southern is beginning its rebuild program for the SD90MACs purchased through Progress Rail from Union Pacifi c. Seen outside Juniata Shop in Altoona, Pa., on August 15, NS No. 7299 will be the fi rst one to enter the program to be completely overhauled. The current SD90MAC cab will be removed and replaced with a new EMD cab. All of the electronics will be upgraded, new traction motors will be installed, and Ultra Cab II cab signalling will be installed. The rebuilds will be designated SD70ACU, and will take several months to complete.
PHOTO BY DUSTIN FAUST
day, and Saturday and departs at 4:00 a.m. Train I-SLSH will carry Puerta Mexico and Interpuerto traffic. I-SLSH operates four times weekly on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and departs at 12:01 a.m. These changes were made to bypass border switching and improve consistency through vol- ume density and simplification of the KCS/KCSM trains.
PTC Progress in Louisiana
The slow and steady progress to imple- ment Positive Train Control continues across the country. In July, newspa- pers in towns across the KCS Meridian Speedway began running legal notices soliciting public comment on PTC com- munication tower construction at vari- ous locations. Ruston (mile 102.62) and Simsboro (mile 113.51) were mentioned as locations for two of the new towers in Louisiana. Tower construction is one of the major steps in implementing PTC, which relies heavily on wireless commu- nication and data transmission.
NORFOLK SOUTHERN SCOTT LINDSEY
Dash 8.5 Rebuild Update
When Norfolk Southern announced plans last year for its Dash-8.5 locomotive rebuild program, it also mentioned that its mechanical team was considering an a.c. traction motor conversion project for a portion of its 1200 Dash-9 units. During July, the first such prototype was completed by American Motive Power at its Dansville, N.Y., plant. AMP shipped
Dash 9-40C No. 8879 via Rochester & Southern Railroad, which delivered it to NS at Silver Springs, N.Y., on July 29, complete with a new wide-nose cab. The unit was delivered in primer and will be painted at Juniata Locomotive Shop. The 8879 rebuild work was reported-
ly performed under contract by AMP for General Electric. AMP is also working on converting No. 8799 at Dansville. In addition to this work, NS has delivered Dash 9-44CW 8900 to the CAF USA, Inc. plant in Elmira Heights, N.Y., for a.c. conversion. CAF USA is a subsidiary of Spanish company Construcciones y Aux- iliar de Ferrocarriles. The goal of the re- build program is to improve the reliabil- ity of the Dash-9 fleet and also improve their tractive effort. NS was one of the last major railroads to buy into the a.c. traction motor technology, but has now embraced it whole heartedly.
Retirements for GP50s
As NS continues to retire its fleet of GP50 locomotives for various rebuild programs, such as the GP33ECO units now being produced at Altoona, the number of these former Southern units still active on the roster has shrunk considerably. On August 1, only the following ten units were in service: 7036, 7037, 7040, 7041, 7047, 7069, 7073, 7074, 7081, and 7083. They are mostly assigned to local and yard work, a far cry from the hot intermodal assignments they enjoyed in the 1980s. Five of the units that day were working on former Southern routes, including the 7041, 7073, and 7081 on locals out of Columbus, Ga.
From CSX and UP to NS
During July, NS completed repainting the last of the 12 SD80MAC locomotives that it acquired earlier this year from CSX Transportation. No. 7222 received its new paint job while in the Juniata Locomotive Shop for repairs, where it remained out of service as of early August. NS currently rosters a total of 29 SD80MACs, all of which were originally purchased by Conrail. NS continues to primarily assign these units to handling coal trains and other movements on the Pittsburgh and Harrisburg Divisions. On August 1, only three of the units had drifted away from these two divisions, and two of those units were on coal trains to North Carolina that originated on the Pittsburgh Division’s former Monongahela lines. The number of former Union Pacific SD90MACs acquired from EMD contin- ues to grow, although at a slow pace. Fol- lowing the delivery of the 7320 at Chi- cago in late July, NS had received 87 of the 100 units budgeted. During the July investor analyst meeting, NS Chief Op- erating Officer Mark Manion noted that the delivery of these units is allowing NS to begin storing some locomotives and establish a surge fleet. However, there are reports that motive power is still tight at some points on the system, and the bad-order rate on the fleet hit 11 per- cent in early August.
Virginia Collision Review
Supervisory teams all over the system have greatly stepped up the number of signal checks being performed on train crews following two incidents in
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