Engines of Amtrak - EMD SDP40F

well well isn't this just like old times let's just say your hour has come again so wake up wake up and smell the ashes [Music] huh whoa hello everyone I'm am chat guy 3-6-5 and welcome back to the first edition of wait no no no no get this bad camcorder audio out of here ah much better but uh what was this series called eggs of Amsterdam oh I gotcha welcome to the first remade edition of engines of Amtrak in this series as you may remember I go over the various types of locomotives Amtrak has used over the years today I'm here to talk about the EMD sdp 40 f but before we get into that let me give some historical context on American railroads in the late 1960s the railroads are suffering dreadfully and no one cuz the locomotives being used dated back to the 1940s and even the 30s passenger cars were just as old as the locomotives themselves and becoming increasingly empty as Americans turned to the airlines in the growing interstate highway system track maintenance was also becoming rare as vegetation re-established itself along railroad right-of-ways the condition of many railroads trackage also limited speeds with both freight and passenger trains once grande rail stations were also becoming shells of their former selves or shutting down outright it wasn't until June 21st in 1970 when Penn Central who was borderline bankrupt filed to discontinue 34 of its passenger trains that the US government took matters into their own hands a few months later in October the rail passenger service Act was signed into law this created the National Railroad passenger corporation or an RPC that would go under the brand name rail packs until being renamed Amtrak this was a combination of the words America and Trek this new nationalized railroad system supported by government and state funding would assume control of inner city passenger trains across the country of railroads who were interested railroads could contract out Amtrak to completely take over ownership and operation of their trains starting on May 1st of 1971 railroads who chose not to join of which there were six out of the 26 who didn't were required to operate their passenger services until 1975 and go through the Interstate Commerce Commission for any service cancellations or changes Amtrak was met with much skepticism with many not expecting it to last long at all it was assumed the American public would forget about Amtrak and passenger trains altogether well clearly that wasn't the case as Amtrak VN operations on May 1st of 1971 and would use a variety pack of inherited rail equipment with varying degrees of quality this would be the case up until 1973 Amtrak couldn't rely on their 10 to 20 year old F and E units anymore as mechanically they were just about done for in November of 1972 Amtrak placed an order for 40 locomotives costing eighteen million dollars electro-motive division or EMD would build what would become known as the SDP forty F it's mechanical design was based on the SD 42 and sdp 40 a passenger variant of the SD 40 PMD didn't want to design an entirely new passenger exclusive diesel for Amtrak should the company falter the qaol body was based on the F P 45 and F 45 locomotive used to power the Santa Fe railways exclusive super chief in El Capitan this body type was perceived as more aesthetically pleasing when mixed with passenger trains the units were also built for easy conversion of freight service should Amtrak cease operations as was a common belief at the time the M DS new product then went into service for Amtrak beginning in June of 1973 regarding technical specifications the SD stood for special duty P for passenger 44 model 40 and F for having a full width cowl body the STP 40 F was rated for a top speed of 95 to 103 miles an hour and powered by an EMD 645 III 16 cylinder engine producing 3,000 horsepower the locomotive comes in at a hefty weight of 396 thousand pounds it has a length of 72 feet four and width of ten feet four inches in a height of 15 feet and seven inches the locomotive came equipped with two steam generators at the rear along with a 1350 US gallon water tank just ahead of them this was due dam checks inherited passenger equipment still being steam heated lastly the units came equipped with the Leslie SL 40 air horn here's a few samples [Music] [Music] initially Amtrak placed their new locomotives out west exclusively however a second batch of sdp 40 FS numbering in at 110 costing 50 million dollars this brought Amtrak's total number of units to 150 they had the road numbers of 500 to 649 the second order which went into service in 1974 allowed Amtrak to finally replace their aging F&E units across the country these later units also had lower profile cooling fans and air horn to accommodate the tighter clearances seen throughout the East Coast trains magazine writer Jay David Engel stated in 1975 that the SDP 40s were the stars of Amtrak's long distance trains they were slow to get going but when they were moving they could really move unfortunately while they may have looked nice they sure didn't ride nice engine crews frequently complained their big locomotives wrote roughly compared to the F and E units they previously operated some crews even reported being thrown out of their seats then came the derailments this is the one thing that the STP 40 FS are infamously known for between 1974 and 76 Amtrak IMD the Association of American railroads and the Federal Railroad Administration investigated to search for a cause to their rough riding and continuous derailments the investigation revealed a number of possible causes one was the constant lateral or side-to-side movement of water sloshing around in the steam generators water tank this would end up causing the locomotive to have more weight on one side than the other and sway and shake as it ran one of the FRS investigations figure that harmonic vibrations between the heavy way sdp for TF and the light weight passenger or baggage car behind Nick caused derailments hey Amtrak guy 365 here harmonic vibrations are an oscillating or continuous swaying motion resulting from a given force that can transfer to another object think of a simple pendulum the force from one ball transfers through the others and acts on the other side with the same amount of force this then repeats in the case of the sdp for TF the intense swaying and bouncing motion of the heavy locomotive transferred to the much lighter weight passenger car behind it that amount of swinging and bouncing movement would cause the cars to jump the track it's like dropping a bowling ball in golf ball from the same height the golf ball bounces higher due to its light weight in this case the locomotive is the bowling ball and the passenger car is the golf ball in short weight distribution between the locomotive and the cars was very uneven another fri investigation made a claim that the hollow bolster htc trucks were to blame the last cause which was much more clear was rough track conditions many but not all of our roads struggled to keep up and pay for track maintenance during this period the santa fe for example didn't have much if anything to complain about regarding the big amtrak units on the flip side Burlington Northern the chassis system and Louisville and Nashville experienced major issues with the 40's to combat these problems Amtrak and for slower speeds on curves and modified the locomotives truck design while this helped reduce incidents the units had already created a ruined reputation for themselves in 1976 the chassis system had outright banned the units from their tracks calling them rail breakers they suspected rails were spread apart from the locomotives lateral slang Amtrak's Empire Builder would then experience a 6-hour increase in travel time as a result of speed restrictions as well by 1975 the gep 30 CH had entered service to supplement the failing STP 40s but Amtrak knew they still needed another new locomotive in turn the f40 pH was ordered beginning on May 8th 1975 it would soon begin to displace the SDP 40s on not only long-distance trains but shorter intercity trains as well the locomotive was further made obsolete as more of Amtrak's than new and fleet one passenger cars went into service outside of the Northeast Corridor in 1976 and 77 they had been expedited into service due to the unusually harsh winter that season putting much of the steam heated equipment out of service these am fleet cars came equipped with had n power or AGP for short new super liners commonly used out west also featured HEV in short the f40 pH came equipped with had n power the SDP 40s did not it was clear who the winner was in 1977 Amtrak traded in 40 of their 40s back to EMD components from these locomotives including the prime mover would be used in a series of f40 s known as the f40 PHR are meaning bill from STP xl parts in the following years up until 1987 Amtrak traded in a total of 132 units back into EMD for f40 P hrs also during this time in 1984 Amtrak was experiencing a light engine shortage in turn they traded an 18 s DP for TF to the Santa Fe Railway in exchange for 25 CF 7s and 18 s SB 1200 in 1985 the Santa Fe began converting their Amtrak engines for use in freight service these were designated SD f40 - - this involved removing the steam generators along with regaining them for slower speeds other modifications included adding a railing for the narrow front end platform adding concrete ballast in place of lost weight from the steam generator and water tank removal of a nose light steam generator related parts being plated over among other smaller changes they proved much more reliable having none of the problems Amtrak did when they owned them the only issue proved to be the removal of a nose light created glare in the cab during adverse weather conditions along with mounting and dismounting the unit the stf 40 - 2's front steps were more or less a small vertical ladder rather than steps this proved especially risky during rolling or on the move crew changes meanwhile back on Amtrak the remaining 40 F's have been reduced to work trains or stored away the last nine SDP 40s would finally be retired off of Amtrak's roster in 1987 those not traded into EMD are sold to the Santa Fe were likely scrapped retrospectively some of those who operated the big diesels think they would have survived longer had the steam heating tech been removed in a cheapy [Music] in 1988 the Santa Fe began to remedy some of the lingering problems with their modified units they reimplemented the nose light to reduce glare in the cab and later that year they added notches on both sides of the nose this once again allowed crews to mount the unit and enter through the nose as was preferred in 1995 after the Burlington Northern Railroad and Santa Fe merged to create Burlington Northern Santa Fe the SD f40 - choose re number - BNSF specifications however the first unit would be retired in 1999 after a low-speed derailment bent the frame and experienced significant body damage by November 2001 the locomotives began to be put into storage at Kansas City and Barstow for the last time all units were officially retired on May 2nd 2002 and removed to Topeka Kansas in August for part harvesting that fall scrapping commenced [Music] however not all is doom and gloom for Amtrak's hefty passenger units in June 2002 BNSF 69 76 formerly Amtrak 644 was pulled out of storage and sent to the National Railway equipment shop in Mount Vernon Illinois there it was painted up as a display locomotive for the grand opening of Maersk Speer 400 container terminal at the Port of Los Angeles in August the scheme was reminiscent of Santa Fe's war bonnet design the cold and dead unit was moved around by NS 33-29 which was also decked out in Mayer's colors 69 76 made one last public appearance at the opening of BN SS logistics park intermodal facility in Joliet Illinois on October 14 2002 the unit was then once again moved to storage in Topeka with an uncertain fate however the Northwest Railway Museum acquired the locomotive in November 2003 numbered it back to its original Road number 644 and moved it to Portland Oregon there it would be repainted with unlicensed America colors 644 would be designated for daylight locomotives and machine works incorporated or dll Macs and saw service on the Portland and Western Railroad throughout the mid to late 2000s and early 2010's it would then be kept at storage in Portland in January of 2014 dynamic rail preservation or Dyna rail moved the 6:44 to Ogden Union Station in Ogden Utah tagging along was ex Amtrak f40 PHR number 231 the 644 is now lettered for dy Rx and was intended to be restored towards original Amtrak appearance 644 and 231 then set stagnant for several years until January of 2019 diner rail in conjunction with the Nevada state Railroad Museum in Carson City moved the engines to the museum to be restored to operation in June 2019 644 was read numbered back to 69 76 to honor its BNSF heritage in late 2019 the unit ran under its own power once more with more successful tests continuing into early 2020 however 644 isn't alone two other sdp for TF seem to still exist with those being 169 and 218 these became EMD test units in the early 80s but not much information is available on them apart from those Google Maps imagery Caty at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo Colorado I haven't been able to find much info or photos regarding their current whereabouts it said that they're currently heavily modified testbed units operating at the TTC and pueblos well that's quite a positive ending to such an infamous and ill-fated locomotive while not the most successful locomotive it still has plenty of fans out there and was definitely able to leave its mark an impact on the history book of Amtrak the National Railroad passenger corporation [Music] thanks for watching this remade version of engines of Amtrak the SDP for TF episode as you may know the original was taken down for copyright reasons but regardless of that engines of Amtrak is back in business I hope you all enjoyed and stay tuned for next time when I discussed the EMD f59 pH I thank you again for watching [Music]

Channel: AmtrakGuy365

Views: 179,831

Rating: 4.9060936 out of 5

Keywords: Amtrak, Amtrakguy365, SDP40F, Amtrak SDP40F, Engines of Amtrak SDP40F, F40PH, Engines of Amtrak, Amtrak Trains, Trains, Train, Amtrak Train, Amtrak derailment, Amtrak acela, Amtrak high speed train, Amtrak vacation, Amtrak F40PH, Amtrak cab ride, Railfanning, Amtrak crash, Amtrak Empire Builder, Amtrak Southwest Chief, Train videos, Amtrak Northeast corridor, Amtrak engines, Railfanning 2020, Engines of Amtrak P42DC, Engines of amtrak f40ph, Railroad, Railway, EoA, Engines

Id: K75TM2JKxdc

Length: 15min 21sec (921 seconds)

Published: Wed May 13 2020