What Happened To CSX's AC6000s?

In their recent run of N scale AC6000s, Broadway Limited painted the CSX units in the YN3 "dark future" scheme that dates from 2002. Checking photos on the web, I've found that the unit unbers BLI ran with this scheme actually had them on the prototype. (BLI photo)

After last week's post on UP's AC6000, I learned that a spotting feature that distinguished "full" AC6000s like CSX's from "convertible" or "rebuilt" units on UP was the exhaust stacks. An "original" or "full" AC6000 has twin exhaust stacks like the CSX unit in the model photo above. "Convertible" or "rebuilt" units have a single exhuast stack similar to an AC4400 or ES44. This also applied to CSX units that had their engines modifed or replaced.

Unlike the UP units, the CSX units had their AC6000s with AC-radial trucks. BLI reflects this difference on its models.

It's a little harder to track down concrete information on the fate of CSX's AC6000s. The Wikipedia entry I linked last week says that CSX received three pre-production units numbered 600-602 in December 1995. Due to problems with these units, full production was delayed until 1998. GE then delivered "full" units 603-699 and 5000-516 between October 1908 and April 2000.

As with UP, CSX had continuing problems with the "full" units. Per the link,

603-699, 5000-5016's original prime movers replaced with 4,600 hp (3,400 kW) 16 cyl. GEVO prime movers and new computer equipment essentially making them ES46ACs. CSX classifies these units as CW46AHs. 5015 and 5016 were both classified as a CW60AH.

According to another link,

Since 2008, many CSX units have since been equipped with GEVO electronics essentially dubbing them as "ES60AC's", while other units are reported to be equipped or retrofitted with GEVO-16 prime-movers (though nearly all of them simply have modified engine blocks or are retrofitted with 7FDL-16 engines).

So far, I haven't been able to find concrete information on which specific CSX units received which specific modifications.

In the YouTube short below, you can see a CSX AC6000, but if you look at the roof of the long hood, you can see that the as-built twin exhaust stacks like those on rhe BLI model have been replaced with a single, wider exhaust stack like on an ES44.

I will be on the lookout for N scale parts that might be used to modify the BLI model.

According to the last link above, CSX 603-665, 667-699, and 5000-5016 weere sold to Progress Rail in 2018. 600-602 remained on CSX property but out of service. CSX 601 is the "Spirit of Waycross" unit, while 602 is the "Spirit of Maryland". 666 at some point was renumbered to 656 due to the number's Biblical connotations.

In 2019, Progress Rail leased 10 units (two for parts only) to the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad, which numbered them 6000-6007. The YouTube video below shows the WNY&P units in servicxe late in their career:

The description of the video reads,

In 2019 the Western New York and Pennsylvania railroad entered into a lease agreement with Progress Rail or PRLX to rebuild/ lease 8 former CSX AC6000’s to replace the WNYP’s aging fleet of 6 MLW M636’s. Slowly the AC6000’s began to phase out the M636’s between 2019-2020. The WNYP’s AC6000’s numbered 6000-6007 became the main powerhouse of the railroad making runs up keating summit with only 2 locomotives instead of 3-4. However over the next few years the WNYP’s traffic was steadily decreasing and due to this only 3 out of 8 AC6000’s would see regular service. In 2024 the railroad lost one of its largest customers who moved fracking sand out of Emporium PA eliminating runs up the Keating Summit, also in 2024 70 miles of track between Sagertown and Jamestown would be taken out of service further more limiting the traffic of the WNYP and with this cut in traffic saw the nail in the coffin for the AC6000’s. On May 28th AC6000’s 6000, 6003, 6006, and 6007 were moved to Meadville PA where Norfolk Southern would take them to an unknown fate.

All were off the WNY&P late in 2024. According to the link above, Aberdeen, Carolina and Western Railway rebuilt former CSX AC6000CW #666/PRLX 656 into a bar under the name "Engine Room ‘87" in 2024.

What Happened To UP's AC6000s?

Not long ago, I noticed that Broadway Limited did a second run of N scale GE AC6000s. Most notably, I noticed that the UP units were in the post-2023 "small flag" scheme, like this photo of 6937 (BLI photo):

This came as a surprise, because I thought UP's AC6000s were out of service. But this was only partly correct. I began searching for prototype photos, and sure enough, I found some prototypes in the 6900 series in the "small flags" scheme. However, no UP AC6000s currently exist with the original 16-7HDL 6000 horsepower engines. According to Wikipedia, "beginning in 2018, Union Pacific had begun sending its AC6000CWs to GE for rebuilding. The rebuilt units are classified as C44ACMs. By 2023, all of the units have been rebuilt."

As far as I can tell, all AC6000s, original, convertible, or rebuilt have two main spotting features. First, the right side running board jogs upward between the equipment box behind the cab and the rear truck. Second, the radiator extends out over the rear running board.

So let's recap UP's main groups of AC6000s. The Wikipedia link is the best source I've found. The original 6000 horsepower units were numbered 7500-7579, delivered between November 1995 and January 2001. As noted above, these were returned to GE for rebuilding with 4400 horsepowwer engines, but with no outward changes, starting in 2018. Going through my own photos, it looks like I never caught any in the original 7500 series -- for whatever reason, they must not have operated in Southern California.

Units 7300-7405 were "convertible", delivered with the older 4400 horsepower 7FDL engine, with the idea of upgrading them to the 6000 horsepower engine, but this never happened. These units were renumbered to 7010-7079 to make room for ES44ACs, but are not in the same order. They were classified as C4460AC and rebuilt to C44ACM later on in 2018. It looks like I never caught many of these before they were renumbered, but several afterward. But based on the dates of the photos, it's not clear when this renumbering took place. (all photos below are by me):

UP 7342 West Colton November 27, 2013

UP 7010 Cajon 1999

UP 7028 West Colton December 24, 2014

UP 7052 West Colton September 26, 2012

All the original 6000 horsepower units were returned to GE and rebuilt with 4400 horsepower GEVO engines between 2018 and 2023. They were renumbered 6888-6968. Again, based, on the dates of the photos from the metadata in the image, I'm not sure if the dates in the Wikipedia entry are entirely correct.

UP 6898 West Colton February 28, 2018

UP 6911 West Colton January 13, 2016

UP 6961 West Colton April 29, 2014

So the 2024 BLI units numbered in the 6900s with the "small flag" scheme are, strictly speaking, 4400 horsepower C44ACM locomotives, not AC6000s, but they are correctly painted, correctly numbered, and are currently in service.

Atlas Wabash Train Master

I founbd this for an OK price on eBay, but unlike the other Atlas Train Masters I have, this one has been nothing but problems.

I don't know if Atlas still does this, but at least in the 1990s and 2000s, it sold its locos with side handrails installed, but the end handrails were packed separately in the box for the user to install. This was never a good solution, partly because buyers would either lose the handrails or mess them up installing them, and if other models were available to pull out from poorly supervised dealer shelves, some guys would go into the boxes and steal the end handrails from other boxes at the store, and later buyers would get those models home and discover the end handrails were missing.

If you contacted Atlas, they'd say it wasn't their fault, but they'd contact the manufacturer and have them run some extras the mext time they ran the model in four or five years, that is, if the manufacturer remembered to do it then. This was a big reason I gave up on Atlas.

This model was facrory new, the box was sealed, and the handrails were there, but they were extra-fiendish to install. The front ones fell out again as I carried this to the camera. Hope I can find them.

Now I discover that the cab isn't properly seated on the running boards. Another item to try to fix.

The PC board with the DCC socket has the wire position 4 as the only one marked -- normally 1 is marked. But OK, I mounted the plug with the black wire at position 4. When I tested it, I found that the headlghts didn't work, and the loco ran in the opposite directions for front and rear. Turns out the 4 should have been 1. I turned the plug around in the socket so the orange wire went in the position marked 4, and it ran correcrly, and the headlights worked. Luckily this was an easy fix, the others not so much.

This is why I've mostly stopped buying modcls that aren't fully assembled with decoder installed. Walthers Mainline or Proto locos with DCC and sound seem always to be quality assured and don't have all this aggravation. Granted the Atlas Train Master was released in 2004, which makes it 21 years old, but it's time for a next-generation model with high end features like ScaleTrains or Rapido.

Walthers Mainline D&RGW GP9

The most recent runs of the Walthers Mainline GP9 have had paint schemes that I've found appealing, including the Central Vermont 1970s-80s green and yellow and the 1950s SP-Texas & New Orleans black widow. I also really like the D&RGW large speed lettering.

According to the Utah Rails site,

Beginning in 1968, on either new units or on most repainted units, the Rio Grande lettering was made larger, with the Rio made 24 inches high, and Grande made 60 inches high.

The first locos to get this scheme were SD45s assigned to the Kaiser Steel unit coal train to California. Five GP9s (5902, 5903, 5904, 5911, 5954) got this lettering. The Walthers models in this run are 5903 and 5911. Below is a Jim Parker photo of 5904.

Comparing the model paint to prototype photos, the large lettering appears to be correctly placed on each side of the long hood. A smaller black panel with the older flying Rio Grande appears on the short hood front. As on the prototype, the long hood rear does not have this patch. The engineer and fireman figures in the cab correctly face the short hood front of the loco.

I have the sound and DCC version. The ESU sound provided is a lower-cost subset that doesn't have features like prime mover delay on full-featured loco decoders. It also has a limited set of horn and bell options. These are Horns: CV163 = 0 - Leslie A-200 CV163 = 1 - Wabco single-chime CV163 = 2 - Nathan M3 (default) CV163 = 3 - Leslie S3L Bells: CV164 = 0 - Bronze bell (default) CV164 = 1 - Steel bell. I'm satisfied with this sound.

Watchng videos with sound of the D&RGW prototype locos, they appear to have Nathan M3 horns, the default, although the plastic horn detail on the model looks more like a too-small Leslie. As I usually do, I set the acceleration and deceleration momentum CVs 3 and 4 to 0; the flywhweel momentum in the model is enough for me. These were the only CV changes I needed to make.

Operating Scheme Maintenance

I've been running what amounts to a JMRI operations maintenance job, adding newly acquired items over the pastr year or so to the layout and updating their locations to JMRI.

At rear, both of the new Central Vermont GP9s have been added to a consist with the Grand Trunk blue one. They really sound greatr with all engines running at once. Next to that is the Walthers Mainline NW2 on another service track. The Walthers Mainline SCL SW7 is running the update train. I really like the Walthers EMD switchers; the sound has really nice random thuds and clicks.

The tank car isn't new; it's a Bachmann track cleaning car cleaning out the yard tracks as part of the job. It has a neat paint job for D&RGW work service.

In front of the SW7 is one of my recent Accurail Wellsville, Addison, & Galeton boxcars. In the foreground is one of my new Ertl gons with a Chooch load.

Japan Vignette

In my last post, I mentioned that of the limited number of N locos that will negotiate Kato Compact Line curves, many are Japanese prototype. (The Kato N NW2 will take them, but the Broadway limited locos will not.) That doesn't bother me, I had a chance to visit Japan many years ago, and I've always liked Japanese trains. So I decided that if I was going to run some Japanese prototype on this layout, I could justify making some of the scenery Japanese.

Tomix buildings are good basic models of very typical Japanese structures. There are several American railfans who live in Japan and make YouTube videos in US English about their travels, like Jeremy below:

There are also many, many Japanese railfans who post on YouTube, many of whose videos are cab rides on an entire line. You can turn on English sutitles that will translate their Japanese. All these are great tools for getting a feel for how buildings are positioned -- for instance, the ones in my photo back up against the rail line in very typical fashion.

For now, I'm just experimenting with where to place things, and everything is subject to change. But this is an example of the flexibilty possible if you use T-TRAK modular architecture for a home layout; scenes can always be swapped out.

Kato N Japanese ED19 Electric Loco

One of a fairly limited number of locos that can operatre on Kato Compact Line 150 mm curves is their ED19 electric loco:

The prototypes were six locomotives built for the Japanese National Railways by Baldwin-Westinghouse in 1926.

They were built for the Japanese 3'6" gauge, but the proportions aren't far off for US standard gauge electric locos. With a 1-B+B-1 wheel arrangement, they seem to be fairly close to the New Haven EF-2.

The biggest difficulty I had with the loco was installing the number plates. Kato number plates and number boards are tricky and liable to shoot off into space in installation. On their US models, Kato provides extras in case this happens. On this model, though, you just get four boards per number, with no spares. You'd probably have to send to Japan for replacements and maybe try to explain things in Japanese.

What I've done with Kato number boards and number plates is use a small piece of Scotch Magic Tape, laid sticky side up. I press the number board or number plate onto the tape, number side down, into the sticky side of the tape.

Then I pick up the tape and use it to maneuver the number board or number plate into the recess in the body where it belongs. It's good to double check and make sure the numbers are right side up. It may take some jiggering around to get things exactly in line to go in, but the tape will keep things from flying off into space. When the board or plate is firmly installed, you can just gently pull the tape away.

With no spares, I was nevertheless able to get all four number plates installed in this loco.