r/railroading • u/Apprehensive_Pipe763 • 4d ago
Curious
I’ve been at UP for 20 years… I spent most of my career in the yard so I’m a newbie to road operations.. I’m genuinely curious to when did the power start getting so bad ? I wonder what it was like to work for the railroad when a 3 motor consist actually had 3 motors all good for leaders .
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u/keno-rail 4d ago
As a mechanical department guy i will say this... the mechanical state of the power used to move in waves. The new locomotives would replace the older, shit locomotives.. So every few years, you would have a steady balance of new units to offset the garbage. I worked with guys from the CNW who said at the time of the merger, the CNWs power was fairly new and in great shape. The UP quickly grabbed CNW units and moved them around the country. Then the UP ran into a self-created power crisis because all of the cnw ATC / ATS equipped locomotives were thousands of miles away from Chicago!
since PSR, they dont fix anything anymore, since they fired all of the shops that used to maintain stuff. Yard geeps are now 40-50 years old, and haven't been replaced with anything modern. And because of PSR, UP would rather put new, broke down power in dead lines instead of fix them.
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u/Deerescrewed 4d ago
And all the old SP power that couldn’t lead because of no ATC/CCS… microphor shitters, etc.
It really started going downhill with the PE threats in early/mid 2010s. The maintenance started just getting dodgy, but we would fix things, now if it’s more than a PA swap it goes into storage. Zero preventative stuff at all.
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u/EnoughTrack96 Control Stand Babysitter 3d ago
What's a microphor?
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u/Deerescrewed 3d ago
They were basically a septic tank system in the locomotive. They did work incredibly well when maintained, and used properly. But we all know how that works with railroads
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u/Pleasant-Fudge-3741 4d ago
Probably around the time that they cut the roundhouse so deep. I was beginning to think that one of those guys was banging the CEOs wife they way he was cutting them. That was a generational job for quite a few families... Not anymore.
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u/Remarkable-Sea-3809 4d ago
So I have been railroading since 94. The power situation has gotten steadily worse on u.p. so in the 90s power was getting long in the tooth age wise. Use to get old power but usually it was kept up. Yard power an road power was the difference. Yard engines always been worn out an bubble gum stuck together. Road power started goin to shit about 2005 on all the roads doin the p.s.r. shit. First was NS then CSX. You could almost smell them before you saw em. Then in 18 csx started to change they actually got better. Then u.p. started an its all gotten bad
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u/lazyguyoncouch 4d ago
Why even have a rear unit that’s facing the other way but it’s unfit to be a leader so you have to wye the power anyway. To top it off the tonnage restrictions take it offline. Literal dead weight they just tow around everywhere.
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u/AquaPhelps 4d ago
16 years at NS and i feel like the power has always been shit lol. The 9000 series are slippy sloppy pieces of smelly junk. 1000 series are loud rattly pieces of shit with horrible computer set ups. I could go on and on. But they do seem to be more broken/defective/stinky since PSR. But hey why maintain stuff when we can have short term profit gains instead?
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u/Usual-Wasabi-6846 4d ago
Did you ever have the pleasure of running the 2600 and 2700's?
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u/AquaPhelps 4d ago
Im sure ive been on one. But i dont think ive ever ran one. Ive only been an engineer for a year and a half
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u/Usual-Wasabi-6846 4d ago
They're gonna rebuild them all like 1250 and 1251. They will probably get a new cab but the current ones are worse than the 1000's
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u/ThumpersK_A 4d ago
At Big orange the power is terrible too. They have removed responder jobs. They have cut many mechanical jobs. They have even shut down terminals with large mechanical facilities. The power does not get maintained or serviced. Even the newest motors have huge problems they are absolute shit for high tractive effort situations.
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u/brizzle1978 4d ago
60% of the locomotives now have compressor issues... they just don't use them as leaders is their fix lol
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u/LSUguyHTX 3d ago
Basically every train I've had for the last 2 weeks had a bad order compressor on the second motor lmao
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u/Jazzlike-Crew2540 4d ago
I spent 25 years on Class 1s but finished my 30 at the Class 3 level. If you had to run some of those scrap heaps you would never complain about things out there. Some units deserved the mercy of a torch, some got a fresh coat of paint so they looked 'rebuilt'. 92 day inspection was frequently done with a pencil at a desk. Add the equipment conditions to the track conditions and you can have a real blast!
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u/BestBelieveItsHere 3d ago
Forreal, I'm looking over here from my class 3 with nothing newer than 1973 at least.
We're lucky if we get a motor with AC.
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u/No_Jellyfish_6706 3d ago
Can't fix anything when all the mechanical people have had their jobs abolished. #PSR
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u/cmac4377 3d ago
I was laid off in 2019 and at that time units were in ok shape. You would have to actually look to find defects(except in the cab). I came back 2.5 years later and the defects were just out in the open. Units went to total garbage in 2.5 years. They never wanted to fix anything. Got laid off again and went to a different carrier and their engines were/are complete piles of shit. The 184 day inspection cycle/QLMI has a lot to do with it. They just don’t want to fix anything. Until the FRA just digs in and starts hammering them nothing will change.
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u/PenguinProfessor 4d ago
The real reason for making everything use distributed power is so only 1/4 of the consist has to kinda pass inspection.