Freshly painted Pan Am Railway C40-8 No. 7635 rolls west in the consist of Waterville-to-Portland train WAPO on Feb. 10, 2018, near New Gloucester, Maine.
WATERVILLE, Maine — Pan Am Railways’ second C40-8 rolled out of the paint booth last week. MEC No. 7635, formerly a CSX Transportation locomotive of the same road number, was released for service on Feb. 10, when it departed Waterville yard in the consist of train WAPO, headed west to Portland, Maine.
The railroad is converting its fleet of locomotives from EMD to GE, with 24 C40-8s and 12 B40-8s on the property. The first C40-8 to be repainted was No. 7552 in August 2017. To date, no B40-8s have made a trip to the paint booth. The new General Electric locomotives spend the majority of the time on the western end of the system, while the remaining EMDs are concentrated out east. Industry sources indicate more four and six-axle GEs are on the way this year, which could eliminate most or all of the remaining EMDs still operating.
What will happen to the EMD locomotives? Also, will they still keep their FP9s?
It is so insulting to EMD that they are losing business here to a competitor who already has a monopoly here on things.THe best road diesel out there is EMDs SD70ACE.Why are these symapathetic fool at EMD letting this happen?When will they reverse the course here?To Pan Am You do not bite the hands that feed you.You know better then this.I know you do
Many many years ago, OK 1977, I was at a small dinner with a “high” B&M motive power person, who stated that GE was “light-years” ahead of EMD and that only the ability of EMD to arrange financing for locomotive purchases kept B&M buying at EMD–they wanted to go GE even in that era. Timmy Mellon has deeper pockets, hence he buys what he wants, usually used…
Is the odd story here that Guilford/Pan Am/Mellon repainted a GE locomotive, or that Guilford/etc. has repainted a locomotive…period?
Its about time! This unit has been oos awaiting paint for months!
@George Benson They are switching because they have run their EMD’s into the ground to the point which they are too costly to fix. Plus they never maintained them well to begin with, in 2015 they tried not buying engine oil for the locomotives, and it didn’t go well at all. They lost several units due to blown up crank shafts and other major mechanical failures. Then they decided they would take what little bit of oil that was left in the out of service units and put it in the ones that still ran. Then they were power short and pulled out of a grant program that was helping them rebuild 48 miles of main line up to 25MPH and instead used the money which they needed to invest in track work into buying the GE’s.
Jerry, please to remember in these hallowed pages of recent that GE Transportation is “on the block” as not fitting into the corporate future of General Electric. Your “long live” comment is spot on, as long as you consider it will be in a name-plate only (as EMD has witnessed since being sold by GM) – and have no real connection with Erie, PA, Fort Worth, or Mexico assembly plants.
EMD hasn’t made a reliable locomotive since the SD40-2. Fitting that the GE locomotive (Dash 8) that dethroned EMD is once again knocking their loco’s off the perch. Long live GE!
What does Pan AM Railways have against EMD locomotives? I would love to know the rational behind their converting to all GE products. The article does not go into that.
wow and i thought the pan am railways wasn’t planing to get GE diesel locomotives
Terrible picture .
Kip William Grant
The Forth Worth assembly plant isn’t going anywhere, Erie will most likely be shut down, but Fort Worth is non-union so it’s most likely to continue as the only plant in the U.S. building GE locomotives. Since the final decision hasn’t been made yet it’s till possible that they’ll spin-off GE Transportation to current stockholders as stand-alone company, keeping the name and all current assets. That would actually be the smartest decision to make, but then again, current management hasn’t been shown to be that smart.
A Bigger Picture??