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THE OLDEST ROAD UNITS - THE 800'S
Here is a 2023 snapshot of the active 800's road numbers in 2023. Actually the 500 series of GE's were used as road power before being mostly retired to yard duties. We'll talk more about them elsewhere.
GE built 44 P40's (road numbers 800-843) in 1993. Three were destroyed and scrapped relatively early, 817 at Bayou Canot, and two at Bourbonnais, Illinois in 1999 (807 &829). There are ten of the original 15 George W. Bush restorations still in service at Amtrak (although they were not completed in time for his administration to end). Four stimulus-fund rebuilds from 2008-2011 (including 40 year anniversary throwback paint unit 822) have subsequently been taken out of service and are stored at Beech Grove, Indiana. Two of those had road crossing incidents in separate Tangipahoa Parish Louisiana events.
Beech Grove has rebuilt several of the earlier P40's that were sold off and ended up at Connecticut DOT (with several passing first through New Jersey Transit. Those not rebuilt by Amtrak have been sold off, and there future is unknown. One of those sold for parts, #800, remains at Beech Grove in 2023. Verified also at Beech Grove in March 2023 were 809 822(40th anniversary paint) and 823. Also there is reportedly 818, which was a trailing unit in a farm equipment accident in Montana (behind #9).
The majority of 800 road number movements today are on the Autotrain, where they are preferred for their analog braking characteristics. The autotrain is Amtrak's only route where autocarriers are used, and freight style braking is helpful. The AutoTrain was originally a private service that had two routes to Florida. After derailments of the Chicago service due to poor track maintenance of that time period, the company went bankrupt and Amtrak ultimately absorbed its assets. But there are only three of the remaining ten that still roam (816 817 and 824). They are getting hard to find in daylight, since the Autotrain mostly operates at night. These three or four are the ones we are still tracking. They are Amtrak's oldest Genesis locomotives, but also the newest, since they were totally rebuilt ten years ago with George W. Bush economic stimulus funding (but not actually completed until well into the Obama administration).
HERE ARE THE REMAINING ACTIVE P40S AT AMTRAK
814 Autotrain (Serial 47282-June 1993).
815 Autotrain (Serial 47283-July 1993). Active September 2, 2023 with 821.
821 Autotrain (Serial 47289-August 1993). Active September 3, 2023 with 815.
830 Autotrain (Serial 47298-October 1993). Active August 26, 2023 with 815.
831 Autotrain (Serial 47299-October 1993).
832 Autotrain (Serial 47300-October 1993). Active September 4, 2023 with 835.
835 Autotrain (Serial 47303-November 1993). Active September 4, 2023 with 832.
837 Autotrain (Serial 47305-November 1993).
816 (Serial 47284-July 1993). Coast Starlight in August and September, 2023.
817 (Serial 47285-July 1993). T3Aug11/13(w/82). Heartland Flyer September 5, 2023.
824 (Serial 47292-September 1993). T5Aug11/13(w/164). Train 6 September 2, 2023.
The former Amtrak 843 was rebuilt at Beech Grove for Connecticut in 2023. Now numbered CTDX 6707, it moved Beech Grove to Chicago on March 20(w/817) and then on train 48 (w/114+136). On June 7, 2023, CDTX 6702 also moved from Beech Grove to Indianapolis, and on train 48/448 into Boston with Amtrak 120 and 101. These were supposed to have been overhauled/rebuilt in 2020, but were delayed by COVID and other issues.
September 4, 2023 Update from 4rr.com feedback at 4rr.com comments corrections updates ok
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