A source close to the railroad tells Trains this week that Summer 2019 will likely be the last for the larger Montreal Locomotive Works diesels — built in Canada, but patterned after American Locomotive Co. designs.
The railroad will be taking delivery of eight former CSX Transportation AC46CW locomotives to replace them in June. Six of the CSX locomotives will be in service while two will serve as parts supplies for the active units.
The search for replacements began two years ago as the railroad sought modernize the fleet, reduce moving parts, save fuel and improve WNY&P’s carbon footprint.
Progress Rail offered the locomotives to the WNY&P and representatives tested them on the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad before making their decision. All the units selected for purchase were located on the A&M in Springdale, Ark., and will be serviced there prior to leaving the A&M.
The parts locomotives will be shipped to the WNY&P in June. The operable units will be shipped as they are serviced between June and August and will see service on the WNY&P shortly after they arrive. The locomotives will be painted in the current Livonia, Avon & Lakeville livery — the parent railroad of the WNY&P —and numbered 6000-6005 prior to delivery. There is no confirmation yet on their former CSX numbers.
The big six-axle locomotives from Montreal will be phased out of service as they arrive and will be stored serviceable. The source close to the railroad has confirmed that there are no plans to replace any of the four-axle Alco/MLW fleet as they are said to be performing well.
WNY&P maintains offices in Olean, N.Y., and Meadville, Pa. Parent company LA&L is based in Lakeville, N.Y.
First 2nd hand owner for AC6000CW’s I believe, excluding Progress Rail.
While their GEVO engine is young, I hope they get the overhaul they’re desperately in need of. 10 years of deferred maintenance and on and off storage on CSX left them in pretty sorry shape by the time Progress Rail picked them up. And so far, Progress Rail only has done only minimum work to get them running, which mostly has taken the form of parts cannibalization from some of the worst off examples.
I’m somewhat skeptical that they’re going to be as pleased as they hope. While serviceable and set to be shopped by the A&M before shipment, I very much doubt these are getting that heavy overhaul that will ensure reliable service for the long term. Especially since the deal includes two parts engines, it sounds like it’s little more than a light shopping and otherwise will be arriving as-is, in their heavily worn condition.
They’d of been far better off buying some CSX SD50’s I bet, of which some good deals recently were offered. With some cost effective rebuilding and updates such as overhauling their 645’s and downgrading them to E specifications along with the installation of Wabtec’s Q-Tron or EMD’s EM2000 microprocessor control system, they can be made into very solid platforms set for decades more of service.
Both Norfolk Southern with their SD40E’s and CSX with their test run of 14 SD50-3’s, have been very happy with the end result. Only the arrival of Progressive Scheduled Railroading ultimately killed off the large CSX fleet of unrebuilt SD50’s, with the Dash 3 program shelved a decade ago since the Dash 2 fleet needed rebuilding even worse. The plan pre-Harrison was always to restart the SD50-3 program after the GP38/GP39/GP40/SD40-3 programs had ran their course.
George Waldron,
Unfortunately I don’t think the WNY&P is going to get what they think out of the new units…they’re shuttering units that are a known quantity as far as pulling power goes for newer units that aren’t as powerful(I’m not talking about horsepower either). Why they’re saying parts are hard to find is beyond me though, if I do a Google search for 251 engine parts I come up with a half dozen pages selling either aftermarket or even new parts, so that’s just a lame excuse. As for your comment about them being smoky we all know that was from turbo lag, something any diesel engine can suffer from…even GE’s used to have the same issue, it’s not a big deal(and certainly isn’t producing an inordinate amount of pollution, it just LOOKS like it).
As someone who had to work with them, (on and off thank goodness) I think they are nothing but smoking, rattling, clanking piles of junk. Good riddance.
I hope those six axle alco diesels will find a new home on a different railroad.
My ALCo heart is breaking but railroading is a business and we do what we do to make money.
I am assuming these were AC6000CWs prior to being down rated for better reliability.