Just found out from the KCSNotes group that UP has not renewed lease on the second order of SD90AC's (UP 8522-8561), though they are keeping the first order (8500-8521) and renumbering them to the 8910 class to make room for more SD70ACes. All of these affected units have the 256H prime mover, that puts out 6000 HP. They have showed up with EMLX reporting marks with a black line thru "UNION PACIFIC". Would be nice to see 'em in gray with KCS lettering, IMO..... Story is that these units are on a long-term lease, which may result in some older six-axle units leaving the roster.
Well, with TLC every so often, these will likely perform well for KCS. Like the Alco-friendly shops of the SP&S, and the 20-cylinder-friendly shops at Burnham in Denver, the more 'troublesome' powerplants will survive just fine. That just doesn't bode well with Uncle Pete's train handling policies--tack on everything but the yard tower, put 2 units on the point, and let the units slug it out on a .8% grade out of Cheyenne at 8-11MPH for 40 miles; and expect the same performance daily without much maintenance.... Just doesn't add up. Hopefully the H-MACs work for KCS better!
The closest KCS has to a mountain grade is the section between Heavener and Mena- Rich Mountain. It twists & turns, and is steeper in some places than UP's #3 South track. ALso, it'll be interesting to see how the boys in Shreveport Yard deal with 256H engines, having worked with 645s and 710s for so long. I also wouldn't be suprised to see 'em on the Dallas-Meridian line, or even in Mexico on the TFM. This gives me more to shoot on my way home from Maine come April.........
What is the policy of KCS with regards to painting long term leased locomotives in KCS color scheme? SD90’s in the KCS color scheme would look great! KCS SD60’s or maybe it was the SD50’s had been on long term lease at one time and had KCS colors. Who is EMLX? Best regards, Swafford
Electro-motive Leasing??? Just a guess but I would guess EMD, or whatever they are now, owns these things. grant
Grant: Yep, it's EMD LEasing. They had the lease on these beasts when they first went to UP, and were returned early (5 years early, from some accounts) to EMD Leasing by UP. Which leads one to wonder if UP got tired of dealing with the 265H engine, or perhaps a 6000 HP locomotive was too much locomotive. I haven't heard of the SD9043MACS (what I call the "90 Lites") being pulled out of service en masse. As for repainting, I do know that the ex-CR SD50s were repainted into the gray before being put into service. I would imagine at some point they will cycle thru a paint shop somewhere and wind up gray.
This is an interesting development.... CSX had de-rated their C60's to C44-6's, but apparently rerated them to 6000 hp at some fairly recent point. I wonder why UP wasn't happy with them?
If they are as prone to failure as CP's mac-H units then I'm not suprised. CP's units are off line more than on it seems. Shop queens. Of course CP is notorious for trying to get the "most" out of it's fleet. That's Canadian for abuse grant
A stock analyst commenting on KCS Q4 loss said that KCS has been improving strategically, but suffered from a lack of locomotive power. This may be part of the reason for KCS leasing the SD90MAC’s
KCS better get them repainted pretty quick before UP sues and demands they be returned to them to be destroyed. LOL
As long as KCS pays royalities for the UP color and maybe 3/4th of the whole amount (less the part obscured by the black line) they can surly run them unpainted. I am sure the UP can conjure up some copyright infringment issue. Doc
Not to fear- the first lawyer from UP that visits KCS country will never return. There's enough wooded, remote countryside in eastern Oklahoma & western Arkansas to, er, "hide" the evidence. I know you guys are kidding, but I don't think there will be a problem with copyright infringement, as long as the logo and lettering are crossed out. As it is, the locomotives were never UP's to start with.
I'm having trouble getting the picture to work. are these from the first series of H engines with the classic looking wide cab, or from the later set that looks more like the new 70s? Are all H-macs leaving the UP? Or just one of those two sets. Obviously the convertable 9043s are staying. I wonder what EMD is doing with the H-mac now? I saw a single H-mac late last year in tehacapi.
I thought the ones retired by UP weren't the convertibles, but the actual SD90MAC's .... Anyway, CSX still has theirs (????) I wonder what the issue is?? Harold
Harold, The SD90MACs weren't retired by UP-rather, they were returned to the lessor early. All of them have the 6000 HP prime mover installed. AFAIK, the AC6000Ws are still on UP property. It looks to me like UP is standardizing on locomotives in the 4300-4400 HP range, as is witnessed by the numbers of SD70Ms, SDD70MACEs, and GE's AC4400s, AC6044s, and GEVO units. That level of horsepower may have proven to be ideal for service. The EMD 6000 HP prime mover was fraight with problems, and may still have a few bugs. Don't know about GE's version, though.
SD90MAC update................ Here's an update on the leased SD90MACs, from the KCSnotes group at Yahoo: From: .com [mailto:kcsnotes@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Lowell G. McManus Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2006 5:29 PM To: .com Subject: Re: [kcsnotes] Whats up with KCS & military? This morning at our tour of the diesel shop area during the KCSHS convention at Shreveport, one of the head hands-on fellows there was our tour guide. Somebody asked him what he thought of the ex-UP SD90MAC's. He said that he really liked them! Sure, they'd had some bugs that needed to be worked out, but he's been doing just that quite successfully. He said that their most persistent problem was something about losing pressure. After trying nearly everything to find out where it was going, he ran pressurized smoke through it and found it leaking out past the valve cover gasket. Several units produced the same result, so he asked EMD about the change interval for those gaskets. There was none, and maintenance records showed that they'd never been changed. He started replacing the valve cover gaskets, and the locomotives started running wonderfully. He also mentioned something about straightening the routing of an electrical cable that had resolved a recurring problem with ground faults on the units. With these bugs being corrected, he said that he hopes that KCS keeps them around for a long-term lease past the current short-term lease. If that decision is made, perhaps they'll be repainted. (That's my comment, not the shop guy's.) NOTE: Lowell McManus is pretty well-versed aout things KCS, and he had just returned from the KCSHS meeting in Shreveport. And, judging by his report, these few fixes may be what makes these former shop queens new road warriors.
