Why a $600 million herd of iron horses has been put out to pasture in Salt Lake City

Deserrt News ^ | 26 April 2020 | John Hollenhorst

[DUMBGRUNT]

If a railroad locomotive is an iron horse, then a vast herd of them has been put out to pasture in Salt Lake City.

They’re lined up, nose to tail, waiting to go nowhere — at least for now. By some estimates as many as 200 railroad engines — each one costing about $3 million — have been sidelined over the last year or so in a Union Pacific rail yard just north of downtown Salt Lake City.

And it has nothing at all to do with the new coronavirus.

A company spokeswoman for Union Pacific refused to answer detailed questions about the unusual sight, but Kristen South wrote in an email to the Deseret News that the engines are “being stored” due to a companywide efficiency program that kicked in during 2019.

[Vigilanteman]

Plus Salt Lake City is a good place to stash them. You won't get much rust with the limited rainfall there nor much vandalism with the limited number of gang bangers.

Plus them Mormonites are mean and well armed should any of the gang bangers get it in their head to try something.

[BipolarBob]

Why would they need to be tempest? Do you know what tempest is?

I had one in my teapot once.

[Osage Orange]

So why are RR stocks up today?

I've traded them over the years....and own some now.

[minnesota_bound]

What if you needed to use Engine No 4583 and it is in the middle of all them other engines? : )

[buckalfa]

"My guess is that there are economies of scale in running fewer trains that are longer."

Channeling Hunter Harrison's precision railroading business model. Moving freight on a schedule. Sad thing is I think we will see more rolling stock mothballed and trackage railbanked even with a quick reopening of the economy.

[ThunderSleeps]

...the engines are “being stored” due to a companywide efficiency program...

That makes sense. I would guess there is a "fixed" cost associated with keeping an engine in service, plus a variable cost based on miles & tonnage pulled. It is probably more efficient to reduce the number of engines in use, storing others, so as to reduce that fixed cost. It would require attention to scheduling but the net effect would be fewer "active" engines sitting around. There'd be stored engines, presumably at a lower cost, and active engines running a higher duty cycle with less down time.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I know nothing of trains, but, someone once told me, that some of the long freight trains can have 2 diesel engines pulling, and one in back pushing. Apparently the weight or volume of such trains are helped by having an engine push as well as pull.

[lurk]

Maybe there’s a market for them in the prepper community, off-grid power generation.

[mad_as_he$$]

I suspect this is the result of exactly what the article says - improvement in efficiency.

The local train here, which has 10-40 cars daily, used to run with two units. About 18 months ago I noticed that it was operating with only one. Joke is on the UP though. It has broken down twice in the recent time and they had to bring another unit up from the yard to finish the day. Once the RR police had to come and get the engineer and drive him back to town so they could get the other one. No one else on duty that was qualified.

[crz]

Then there is this..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhgHrDbN4EU

and this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU9uEwSGp9M

All with just 4 and 2 cylinders respectively.

[crz]

Of course, then there is this..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2BoMFZcnDI

[crz]

One of the big reasons for multiple engines-one in back, is because a “chain” wants to go straight. Have to keep the train tighter or it wants to derail. Not so much on the great plains since the rail system is pretty straight and not curvy or hilly.

Then, there is the issue of the train breaking apart going up a hill and just over the crest of a hill and speed braking going down a hill.

They have to really watch it when half the train over over the hill and going down the other side, and the rest is back on the uphill slope.

[SGCOS]

so if one of those units can pull 50 loaded 100-ton cars, you will need two of those units to pull 100 loaded 100-ton cars.

that amount of power always amazes me. just incredible

[eldoradude]

They can always be dispatched to localities to provide electric power in blackouts.

3.2 - 4.6 MW each. Made by GE which is currently owned by China.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GE_locomotives

[glorgau]

Pretty straightforward linear optimization problem. Surprises me that they are just doing this now.

[IndispensableDestiny]

> Why would they need to be tempest? Do you know what tempest is?

Yes. Impervious to EMP.

Well, no; although some TEMPEST implementations provide shielding against EMP. TEMPEST stands for Telecommunications Electronics Materials Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions. It's all about preventing eavesdropping on leaking electronic emanations.

[SkyDancer]

Dunno - I thought that Iron Horses were steam engines. BTW, did you know an idling diesel engine has the same rhythm as a purring cat?

[BBB333]

“While you can reduce crews with longer trains, you still need a certain amount of horsepower to pull a certain tonnage over the mountain.”

I live at 5,180’ just below a big pass with lots of train traffic.

There are ALWAYS two helper engines on each side of the pass to help the various trains make it ‘over.’

Can’t say it’s like this everywhere, but this is a hard pass and these helper engines have been doing this work for decades.

[Larry Lucido]

Train A leaves Honolulu at 6 am heading east. Train B leaves Los Angeles at 9 am heading west. How much are the drinks in first class?

[Robert A Cook PE]

Ah, but the diesel locomotives generate dc only I believe. Will check though.