CHECK OUT THESE OTHER RELATED VIDEOS: [T-29] The History of Norfolk Southern's SD70ACU www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD4gZ... T-155] GE DASH-8 Decline, Resurgence and the Locomotive Leasing Craze of 2018 www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Fss... The SD80MAC is an awesome machine!! Only 30 of these 20-cylinder, 5000 horsepower goliaths were built in 1995 and 1996.. When the Big Blue was divided, NS took 16 of the brutes with CSX taking 13.. Today, all 80s belong to NS and now selling them off.. Somehow, the number of this video fits the occasion!!
Hey trains21. I know you probably wont respond but that's ok. I just wanted to ask If you could make a short section or short video dedicated to ohi-rail in northeastern ohio. It was sold recently. Thanks
The SD80MAC's are one of my favourite locomotives. The sound they make with a heavy load going up a steep grade is awesome. I'm glade I caught some video of them at work up at Cassandra PA over the years. I have a video of a familiarization video that picked up at a yard sale in Altoona many years ago. It's on You Tube in five parts. Excellent video AC.
Thank you for making this video. I only saw the 80MACs a few times before the split, usually going into Camden with coal or general merch. They were so huge! And as a kid they seemed even bigger! But man did they look awesome in the Conrail Quality whiteface scheme. They were the 5000 hp cousin to the SD90MACs out west. And they didn't disappoint. I just got a pair of Kato HO scale Conrail SD80MACs and I am going to renumber one to 4114 to match one of the ones I used to see. Thanks so much for a great trip down memory lane AC. I have a SD80MAC manual that I need to read thru. It was a pain to get but it gives insight into the tech that went into them. I also have a copy of the official roster painting used to commemorate their acceptance from EMD too.
I personally wouldn't want to relate the SD80MAC's to the SD90MAC's & SD90MAC-H's...Other than they use the same cabs,frames,and are from the same builder.The SD90MAC & SD90MAC-H was what caused the downfall of EMD.The 265H was their first and last four stroke engine,and it was built from scratch,mainly due to EPA regulations and being that the two stroke engines no longer could pass new standards of compliance.GE already had the AC6000CW's debuted,it wasn't until later on that those were derated and rebuilt as C44ACM's and CW44-6's due to continous problems and mainteance issues correlating to the 7HDL-20's turbochargers.What EMD failed to do,unlike GE,was to do harmonic balancing troubleshooting on the 265H's before production became official.With that mentioned,the prime movers suffered from aggressive internal vibration which caused critcial damage to crankshafts,motor mounts,and other components. After Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific gave up on them,EMD retained back to the 710-G3B's in the SD9043MAC's which were still available even under regulations but they weren't allowed to have them in any brand new locomotives.The 265H's later on were actually modified and still are in prolonged usage in Asia and China only. The good thing that came out of the 265H's was when in later years Caterpillar became EMD's parent company after they bought Progress Rail first.EMD previously was acquired by Greenbriar Berkshire after General Motors discontinued their affiliation.Caterpillar completely rebuilt the design of the 265H's and came out with the 1010J's in the SD70ACE-T4's,with the major differences being the crankshafts and fuel injection.It's the predecessor to their C280's & 3600 series.Unforunatley due to numerous electronic issues the Tier Fours didn't get that many orders put in for them.EMD/CAT only sold one hundred SD70ACE-T4's flat out,while GE took over the market.Most of them are owned by Union Pacific,the other handful are the ST70AH-T4's with CSX.
I remember reading about these 80MACS in Model Railroad Craftsman in 96-97. That very same day a trio of shiny new 80MACS came up the hill behind the house with a full string of coal cars. What a sight to see, the sound was thunderous to say the least. I am very fortunate to live right next to the only route to feed 2 coal plants further down the line. That part of line is a very steep uphill climb so the engines no matter what they are were always notch 8. Conrail used the 80MACS exclusively for years afterwards on that route out of Benning Yard. Now it's nothing but GEVO's unfortunately.
It's sad. NS SHOULD HAVE KEPT THEM. AND TO PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET DEPENDING ON THESE GE LOCOMOTIVES IS ASKING FOR TROUBLE! ANY BODY WITH COMMON SENSE WILL TELL YOU THAT HIGH SPEED LOCOMOTIVES ARE NOT ANY GOOD FOR SLOW, DRAG FREIGHTS!ANY LOCOMOTIVE THAT'S GEARED OVER 65 MPH ARE SUBJECTED TO FURNING UP IF YOU PUT THEM ON SLOW, HEAVY FREIGHTS!HERE IS A SIMPLE EQUASION, HIGH SPEED LOCOMOTIVES GEARED FOR 70MPH,AND YOU PUT THEM ON A SLIW, HEAVY,SLOW FREIGHT ON A 2.5%GRADE, WHAT YOU WILL GET IS REDUCED TRACTIVE EFFORT AT LOW SPEEDS. BECAUSE THE HIGHER THE GEARING, THE, MORE THE TRACTION MOTORS WILL BURN UP BECAUSE OF THE SLOW SPEEDS. AND THIS WILL LEAD TO TRACTION MOTORS CATCHING FIRE AND BURNING UP!
Machines get old and tired. They end up costing more money to maintain. It's just the way it is. You wouldn't want to keep paying hundreds of dollars to get your car fixed if it was a hunk of junk that was 30-50 years old and parts were discontinued, would you?
@@PowerTrain611 But Dash 9's are ancient locomotives now, too. Then again, NS bought 1,090 of them originally, so I guess buying them in droves makes them cheaper to maintain maybe??
@@hakeemsd70m Thats just because the Trash 9's GE's. Ease of maintenance isn't one of their best selling points. EMD uses almost entirely 2 stroke engines and modular parts. They're SO much easier to maintain than GE products. Not to mention the amount of aftermarket parts for GE locomotives pales in comparison to that of EMD... much easier to just scavenge from salvaged locomotives and scrap yards in a pinch too. Regardless, look at the age difference between the Dash 9's and SD40-2's. It'll blow your mind when you realize how old SD40's are and how many are still in service.
@@PowerTrain611 I see, good descriptions on the topic man. That makes sense about the Modular interchangeable engine parts. No doubt you're correct, the SD40-2 is the undisputed king of all diesel locomotive reliability. The good folks at LaGrange knew what just what they were doing with the construction of raw motive power. It's been a real pleasure.
I loved the 80 macs but as an electrician at conway engine house they weew a headache to repair especially electrically. They developed very hard to find problems with the TCC computers ( traction control computers ) and was hard to narrow the problem back to that computer. The symptoms would be erradic traction control, unexplained wheel slip, grounds, etc all traced back to something up with the traction control computer. Beyond that issue they were a good reliable locomotive. But that one thorn in the side led to NS wanting to retire them. Eventually they did. Reliability issues are usually what lead to the downfall of most locomotives. Another good example of that is the C39-8 locomotives. At the time i worked for NS those locomotives had 25 ish years of use and were constantly in tbe shop for grounded main alternators, grounded companion alternators, grounds in tbe high voltage switchgear, grounded traction motors and low voltage grounds wvich could be literally anywhere else in the electrical system not limited to lighting systems.
So it can be said what killed the best locomotive built was its fuel hog 20-cylinder engine, the EMD 2-stroke can be arguably regarded as the best locomotive engine ever built on account of reliability & longevity. Sorry, my story and I'm sticking to it. It's also a known fact GE was in bed with the EPA to force EMD to rid themselves of the 2-stroke engine and force them to start from scratch with a 4-stroke, in a sense, cutting EMD off at the knees. Politics, hasn't ever worked for anything of mention and never will. These newer four-stroke engines from both GE & EMD are boat anchors. Great video as always, love your informative stuff
The SD90MAC's & SD90MACH's with the four stroke 265H's would've actually been successful if EMD did correct harmonic balancing and troubleshooting instead of trying to finish things quickly.EMD at the time was in a eager rush as competition because of GE's AC6000CW's which weren't that great either.We obviously both know that the SD80MAC's won that race. The four stroke prime movers in the tier fours isn't bad,the Caterpillar 1010J's in the SD70ACE-T4's is actually what the 265H's failed to be.The problem with the SD70ACE-T4's was errors in the computer systems and something to do with the fuel injection systems,unfortunately concluding why they didn't have high sales. The only true advantage that GE has over EMD is better electronics and traction motors,aside from better fuel efficiency due to them always being four stroke.That's one of the reasons as to how them and Wabtech have EMD/CAT at a standstill.Either way,I personally don't like GE and their way of keeping things extremely complicated without no simplicity,is ridiculous.EMD has always been far easier to work on and do power assembly interchanges if needed. As for the EPA thing,I agree with you.The EPA was the reason why Caterpillar had to discontinue a ton of their engines with only farming agriculture and construction equipment being exempt.Even though this happened awhile after they became the parent company to EMD.I also truly believe that if GM never had cut off EMD,things would've been very different,even today.General Motors back then was the prime reason why EMD was very successful.
I'll bet they did.. I remember seeing a pair moving west out of Philly in CR Quality blue paint.. Since I was on the Schuylkill, I couldn't take any pics or video but I sure do remember the day!
I wonder if these will go to some regionals? I think the BPRR is a good contestant for them as they just recently bought multiple SD60Ms and have been leasing both PW SD70M-2s for a while now. Also they could go to MRL, Utah railway, or maybe even the IAIS as they’ve used some NS 80MACs on their trains before. Could also go to a leasing company.
Sadly its unlikely. The 80Macs are very unique mechanically. Its a shame they didnt make it into the NS SD70ACu program. Due to the expensive one of a kind parts on the 80MACs, higher fuel consumption, and size more then likely they will end up in a scrap yard some day soon. But then you never know, so here it to hope that a few of the Conrail Cadillac's find a new home.
towny72 that makes sense, very sad. I try to be optimistic but something inside me thinks they’ll be sent to the scrappers torch. If that happens, I hope at least one of them gets saved and preserved in CR paint
@@NS_5350 They could end up as donor material for SD70ACu rebuilds. If nothing else I wish one could make it to a museum. They were unique and are a important part of Conrail history.
The SD80mac came out in the mid 1990s when I was living along the Conrail Boston Line. Back then the internet was new, so information about what trains were coming was gained from other fans. I heard about one of the first trains with 80s coming out of Selkirk. This made me get up early and get some shots of them coming through the Berkshires.
It's because Conrail was the only railroad that actually purchased them,with that many orders put in.Chicago Northwestern actually was in the process of purchasing them as well,but then Union Pacific did the merge and canceled it,because they were already invested and interested in the AC6000CW's only. After the merge with Conrail,seventeen went to Norfolk Southern but thirteen went to CSX.One of them was involved in a serious derailment and ended up being torched and scrapped.Later on CSX gave the dozen to Norfolk Southern to get SD40-2's in return as a trade deal.It didn't matter to CSX giving away those SD80MAC's because they had all of their CW60AC's still which were derated as CW44-6's in later years. Norfolk Southern had the remaining twenty nine of them and they stayed in service right up to when the covid pandemic was going on,then that's when they started to drastically cut down their power roster.Twenty three of the SD80MAC's were sold to PRLX and immediatley were scrapped.The last six of them left in existence were acquired and currently are owned by Canadian Pacific.They are using them as parts donors for their SD9043MAC's and SD70ACU's.Most if not all of their SD9043MAC's have been rebuilt into SD70ACU's,they additonally have three dozen SD9043MAC's that they purchased from Union Pacific. Norfolk Southern themselves purchased SD9043MAC's from Union Pacific,among a few others,and also did a rebuild program for SD70ACU's.After the rebuilds,they sold a majority of them to Progress Rail as well.
5:05 I’ve seen this same train come through my town back in 2016! 9669 was leading at the time, heading towards Binghamton! I was too late to get any good pictures of the locos, just overexposed ones.
Great insight, AC! I never saw an 80 in person, but I've always kinda liked the things. I mean, how can you not like a 20 cylinder EMD. Such a shame Uncle Pete canceled C&NW's order. Keep up the good work, AC!
@@jamesvance8456 You're trying and thinking about the 20-645's in the SD45's and SD45-2's,which did damage cranks. The 20-710's in the SD80MAC's never had that issue,they were actually the only reliable locomotives with the highest horsepower from a single engine.The AC6000CW's and SD90MAC's & SD90MAC-H's were worse.
I really enjoy how informational your videos are, always a pleasure to listen to you and watch the great EMD in action on your channel! (+++1 for covering EMD side of things!)
Here is what I think: EMD should produce new EMD SD80MAC's. They will still have the 5,000 HP output; however, they will also have the ability to run on Bio-Diesel, and they will have better radiators for filtering exhaust. Essentially, making them high power, high reliability, and safe for the environment. And obviously, I want to keep that certain Phase 1 EMD style of Wide Cab with the two-piece teardrop windshields. They may look dated on the exterior, but they will have the Latest technology inside. And, if possible, EMD should take another crack at a 6,000 HP engine, except this time, they should PLAN AHEAD and do lots of testing to make a 6,000 HP engine work (+ make it run on Biofuels and clean for the environment). Then they can make renewed SD90MAC locomotives. Biofuels should be the Next Step for Class 1 railroad corporations as they plan out on how to electrify.
Used to see them so much on the former MGA and on the NS Monongahela line. Hauling coal, always. At first they were still in CR paint with NS patches, then repainted and now sold. Hope they found a good home.
All of them are gone.NS sold 23 to PRLX and they were scrapped.The last 6 of them were bought by CP and are being used as parts donors while in storage.
Thanks Man.. So when do you think you'll upload Part 2 to your last video?? Been waiting patiently for it.. I watched the first one at least 20 times!! I loved it!
Well, I was gonna upload that and my winter video last month, but a lot of (good) personal things came up that took priority and responsibility. This weekend I am gonna double check everything and make the final renders, so next week things will be up and running again! :-)
I hope a western railroad like the UP, BNSF or KCS will buy the SD80MACs. They are such cool locomotives, and I hope EMD will revisit the concept again with an American SD80ACE-T4.
Railroads are hesitant to go with anything over 4500 HP these days because of the fear of stranded trains when 1 6000 HP unit goes put vs a 4400 HP unit and the demands of PSR make such monsters unnecessary when you got plenty of Dash 9's, GEVOS, and SD70's that you can run into the ground, rebuild, and repeat and plenty of parts donors to keep the process going.
Thanks for watching Katrina.. The music is a royalty free song that I found online years ago.. The only thing listed for a title is "Cigarette Boat." Strange, I know, but that's what it has for a title.
It is with great sadness to inform everyone that the 23 SD80MACs owned by Progress Rail have been scrapped. At this time, there are only 6 remaining SD80s, specifically the CP Parts Units.
@@redwolfpiping5701 Most of the SD9043MAC's that Norfolk Southern bought from Union Pacific that they rebuilt into SD70ACU's are now in storage with Progress Rail.They only have a handful left on the roster.They basically were purchased out of storage just to end up back in storage again,for the most part. Canadian Pacific however still has SD70ACU's in service,on top of three dozen SD9043MAC's they acquired from Union Pacific.
Cancelled SD80ACu just... Sucks... Seeing NS putting many of their active roster to storage, even sell them to the others. I wonder if they will face a power shortage
Yes one day, they will face a serious power shortage. Because those ge locomotives is not suitable for YARD and switching services. Nor can they drag heavy FREIGHTs on the mountainous grades.these ge locomotives are designed for fast freights.and not for slow drag freights!the difference is the gear ratio. High speed locomotives are not ideal when it comes to slow freight
Excellent video on the legendary SD80MAC, AC. Thanks to you, I now I know what model once filled the void on CSXT's roster after their original order of SD70MAC's ended at the 4589 Spirit of Nashville. I was sure the SD80ACu program would go through, too bad I was wrong. At least CP got 6 of the Middle Macs. I hope the rest of the fleet has a future elsewhere too, along with the NS SD70M's.
My mind failed locomotive identification after 1980. Now I'm widowed and retired is there something to replace Jerry Pinkepank's Second Diesel Spotters Guide? It was quicker than Googling.
Great video AC! Thanks for all the good info on the SD80MAC! I do, of course, love the ALCOs. But I have always been an EMD fan! My model railroad features a WWII train pulled by four EMD FT locomotives. Those were built from 1939 to 1945. Cheers, Danny
Nice video Trains21. One thing you didn't mention was that the SD90 Mac were designed to be powered by a 4 stroke 16-265H, a 16 cylinder prime mover unlike the SD80Mac which was powered by a 2 stroke 20 cylinder prime mover. The KCS had 10 SD90Mac's on a short term lease. They were all former UP units that had been returned in trade for new SD70ace. I think they didn't even last a year on the KCS do to breakdowns. I happened to tour the KCS locomotive shop in Shreveport LA at this time. The shop boss said that EMD had done every thing to make sure the SD90 would fail. It was designed with no common sense. They ran all electrical lines and liquid lines on the same side of the engine. Even one knows hot wires start fires and putting them next to hot oil lines makes bad tings happen. He also said if we keep them it will take over year to fix all the F-up's on them and make them reliable just like the SD50's. Right now we can't even get valve cover gaskets for them. A few mounts later KCS ended the lease and ordered more GE's... Keep up the great job Trains21 !
What a great video I must say!! I love the sd80macs with a passion it’s sad that there leaving NS now they where great units but at least I’ve seen quite a bit of them
👍🚂👁 Thanks AC. You great with the you present your volg.Question how or where would I find info of reopening a line. Here in NJ thru rosell Linden with new towers looks to be catanares Ot had been used by either CNJ Lehigh valley or PRR. IT DOES either cross NEC or hook up with.
AC i so wanna tk u. So much for this wonderful tribute to my fav big blue diesels these are my babies so much appreciated this much i fills my ❤ with joy as and always will be a huge big blue fan tks and again. My rail family on facebook will love this tribute. On my rail group called BIG BLUE FOREVER ....
Union Pacific withdrew those orders of SD80MAC's after the merge because they were only interested in the AC6000CW's at the time.Later on was when the SD90MAC's & SD90MAC-H's were ordered by them, including Canadian Pacific.
Wait a minute, did you get that bit of trivia from Locomotive Wiki or Trains and Locomotives Wiki? If so, I actually wrote that! Lol I'm HenryDuckFan, the guy that founded both wikis and wrote both articles on both sites!
O of maybe like 15 but they will probably be rare on the Sunbury or any line. But yeah I haven't yet seen one you i will have to see one before they go extinct.
Love these 80sand90 mac's. I wish you would of filmed the whole mixed freight trains, it gets bored when you jus focus on jus the locos. I've GOT several of both these models on my ho layout. Great topic. 👌✌️👍
Conrail did a lot of testing with the 80 macs on the Buffalo Line because of Keating Summit. This part of the Buff is now leased by WNY&P from NS. Would be nice to see them there again.
We would’ve had more if Conrail and C&NW not go defunct before they could order more, in other words, they’d go defunct a year later than they actually did but not before receiving their SD80MACs
I am gonna get the new Athearn, and another Kato, dang run em anyway. I especially liked that they did not put that low visibility newer cab on them. That ruined the look of the 90/43MACs they did.
It won't happen,Canadian Pacific got the several that are left which weren't scrapped and will use them as parts donors until they are only worth scrap.
Ns has shot themselves in the foot because a power shortage is coming to them and their ge fleet is not going to be able to do everything. Have you ever seen a freight pulled by ge locomotives only to have an emd unit on there with them?the reason is simple.ge locomotives are not designed for pulling slow freight trains because they are geared for high speed trains. And not for slow drag trains .IF YOU PUT A HIGHER GEARED LOCOMOTIVE ON A HEAVY, SLOW TRAIN AND PUT IT ON a 2.5%grade,the traction motor's will burn up because they are turning too slowly to absorb all the power produced by the engine and generator set.another reason not to use these units onslow trains is if you have three of these on a train and the train only has 10 cars and you speed up to 80 mph,you can cause the traction motor's to turn faster until the armature windings are thrown out and the motors will be destroyed and they will catch fire.
Right now 6 remain with Canadian Pacific as parts sources. But I’m also sometimes told that either only 2 remain intact or that only 2 are left. Still there is a slim chance for CRHS to make Canadian Pacific change their minds and spare an 80MAC
I know this sounds crazy but. Why not place a single SD80MAC into preservation as the most modern piece of equipment in North America to be preserved and so when the others are scrapped atleast a single unit can represent the fleet. Afterall imagine it hauling a excursion.
That’s so sad only 16th years old when 13 or 14th really started like awesome SD80MACS also I like standard cab dash 9 s and like dash 9 Sd70M as will just upsetting see them go and Said being action off or put in storage sad I knew dash 9s rebuilt just upsetting see what happen to railroads
I have, but in all fairness, most of what I learned won't come into play until Parts 4 and 5.. The first 3 parts are the warm-up and/or the launchng pad and prequel.
I knew they had problems with the SD90s, that's why they wound up sidelined.. I didn't know that the ACUs are now giving them trouble too.. Shakes head.
@@Trains21 yeah. there's a reason you see most trailing. As leaders, just issues, software and other things. Progress rail techs must get alot of frequent flyer miles between Kentucky and Calgary. Some have had to been left on sidings because of various failures, both systemic and mechanical. Most get lugged back to the main shops in Calgary, or Montreal, if they're close enough. I could make a video about just that topic.
@Eugene Stoner I meant for variety using older EMDs and stuff. Everybody already knows that the new EMD is not very good. And both manufacturers only make one model each. = Boring Railroading
well if it was me...this is where a RL kitbash comes in..this is where you take worn SD45's with old 20's in them and transfer the 80 gear that is needed engine/controls etc into the 45 and install the cab and long nose sandboxs sd80 radiator flares stapled to the sd45 flares as elephant ears and the 80 trucks on the 45 frame..for a short frame SD45/80MAC 5000hp unit that fits tighter curves. take those old dc progress rail 45's as a base and correct ah construction technical issues along the way and these construction items seen as errors from a shop point of view..these are not issues seen as a thing by computer cad-cam processes of construction a further note on another use for the frames and traction motors the GG1 electeric carbody's are 79' and change and should set right on the frame and trucks of a 80mac remove fuel tank and engine etc install switchgear and a steam boiler install water/fuel tank for boiler/trainpower genset and put the famous gg1 carbodys back on the rails
Unfortunately, the SD90MAC wasn't very successful with CP. Some were delivered from the factory, and some came as kits. They just broke down a lot. Even the rebuilds spend hours in the shops and break down on the road.
I knew they had problems with the SD90s, that's why they wound up sidelined.. I didn't know that the ACUs are now giving them trouble too.. Shakes head.
The 1,6m gauge is rather common here in Brazil, so locos are interchangeable, also the allow for easy conversion of standard gauge traction motors, plus they allow heavier weight per axel, wider carriages and call for wider turns enabling bigger locomotives. Check the DDM45 out, its a SD45 running on DD35A/DDA40X trucks on meter gauge/3ft 3in
AC power was actually invented by Nikola Tesla as a solution to Edison's problem of voltage loss in his DC power grids. Edison thought that it was a stupid idea, and since it's invention it's proved to be better in almost every way.
![[GL][T-183] ENHANCED EMDs: SD60E Explained + GE Dash 8.5, SD40E, GP59E, MP15E & Slugs | Trains 21](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VBP4btri3XA/mqdefault.jpg)
![[GL][T-183] ENHANCED EMDs: SD60E Explained + GE Dash 8.5, SD40E, GP59E, MP15E & Slugs | Trains 21](/img/tr.png)
![[GL][T-176] ENDEARING EMDs: The Indelible SD45 Locomotive | Trains 21](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nuIVkZenDFY/mqdefault.jpg)
CHECK OUT THESE OTHER RELATED VIDEOS:
[T-29] The History of Norfolk Southern's SD70ACU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD4gZ...
T-155] GE DASH-8 Decline, Resurgence and the Locomotive Leasing Craze of 2018
www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Fss...
The SD80MAC is an awesome machine!! Only 30 of these 20-cylinder, 5000 horsepower goliaths were built in 1995 and 1996.. When the Big Blue was divided, NS took 16 of the brutes with CSX taking 13.. Today, all 80s belong to NS and now selling them off.. Somehow, the number of this video fits the occasion!!
The signal at 18:28-18:38 is that ex-DLW or -EL?
Hey trains21. I know you probably wont respond but that's ok. I just wanted to ask If you could make a short section or short video dedicated to ohi-rail in northeastern ohio. It was sold recently. Thanks
@@utubewatcher806 D&H, I think.
@@andrewstrainstuff1773 I'm not familiar with it, I'll have to do some research.
Holy!!!!! I didnt expect you to reply!!! Thankyou. Ohi-rail is a shortline in Minerva ohio. Ohi-rail.com bought by genesee and whyoming.
The SD80MAC's are one of my favourite locomotives. The sound they make with a heavy load going up a steep grade is awesome. I'm glade I caught some video of them at work up at Cassandra PA over the years. I have a video of a familiarization video that picked up at a yard sale in Altoona many years ago. It's on You Tube in five parts. Excellent video AC.
Thanks Hans, watch the video @ 21:23.
Thank you for making this video. I only saw the 80MACs a few times before the split, usually going into Camden with coal or general merch. They were so huge! And as a kid they seemed even bigger! But man did they look awesome in the Conrail Quality whiteface scheme. They were the 5000 hp cousin to the SD90MACs out west. And they didn't disappoint. I just got a pair of Kato HO scale Conrail SD80MACs and I am going to renumber one to 4114 to match one of the ones I used to see. Thanks so much for a great trip down memory lane AC. I have a SD80MAC manual that I need to read thru. It was a pain to get but it gives insight into the tech that went into them. I also have a copy of the official roster painting used to commemorate their acceptance from EMD too.
Nice!! And problem!
I personally wouldn't want to relate the SD80MAC's to the SD90MAC's & SD90MAC-H's...Other than they use the same cabs,frames,and are from the same builder.The SD90MAC & SD90MAC-H was what caused the downfall of EMD.The 265H was their first and last four stroke engine,and it was built from scratch,mainly due to EPA regulations and being that the two stroke engines no longer could pass new standards of compliance.GE already had the AC6000CW's debuted,it wasn't until later on that those were derated and rebuilt as C44ACM's and CW44-6's due to continous problems and mainteance issues correlating to the 7HDL-20's turbochargers.What EMD failed to do,unlike GE,was to do harmonic balancing troubleshooting on the 265H's before production became official.With that mentioned,the prime movers suffered from aggressive internal vibration which caused critcial damage to crankshafts,motor mounts,and other components.
After Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific gave up on them,EMD retained back to the 710-G3B's in the SD9043MAC's which were still available even under regulations but they weren't allowed to have them in any brand new locomotives.The 265H's later on were actually modified and still are in prolonged usage in Asia and China only.
The good thing that came out of the 265H's was when in later years Caterpillar became EMD's parent company after they bought Progress Rail first.EMD previously was acquired by Greenbriar Berkshire after General Motors discontinued their affiliation.Caterpillar completely rebuilt the design of the 265H's and came out with the 1010J's in the SD70ACE-T4's,with the major differences being the crankshafts and fuel injection.It's the predecessor to their C280's & 3600 series.Unforunatley due to numerous electronic issues the Tier Fours didn't get that many orders put in for them.EMD/CAT only sold one hundred SD70ACE-T4's flat out,while GE took over the market.Most of them are owned by Union Pacific,the other handful are the ST70AH-T4's with CSX.
I remember reading about these 80MACS in Model Railroad Craftsman in 96-97. That very same day a trio of shiny new 80MACS came up the hill behind the house with a full string of coal cars. What a sight to see, the sound was thunderous to say the least. I am very fortunate to live right next to the only route to feed 2 coal plants further down the line. That part of line is a very steep uphill climb so the engines no matter what they are were always notch 8. Conrail used the 80MACS exclusively for years afterwards on that route out of Benning Yard. Now it's nothing but GEVO's unfortunately.
Those are some great memories, thanks for sharing them and for watching.
It's sad. NS SHOULD HAVE KEPT THEM. AND TO PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET DEPENDING ON THESE GE LOCOMOTIVES IS ASKING FOR TROUBLE! ANY BODY WITH COMMON SENSE WILL TELL YOU THAT HIGH SPEED LOCOMOTIVES ARE NOT ANY GOOD FOR SLOW, DRAG FREIGHTS!ANY LOCOMOTIVE THAT'S GEARED OVER 65 MPH ARE SUBJECTED TO FURNING UP IF YOU PUT THEM ON SLOW, HEAVY FREIGHTS!HERE IS A SIMPLE EQUASION, HIGH SPEED LOCOMOTIVES GEARED FOR 70MPH,AND YOU PUT THEM ON A SLIW, HEAVY,SLOW FREIGHT ON A 2.5%GRADE, WHAT YOU WILL GET IS REDUCED TRACTIVE EFFORT AT LOW SPEEDS. BECAUSE THE HIGHER THE GEARING, THE, MORE THE TRACTION MOTORS WILL BURN UP BECAUSE OF THE SLOW SPEEDS. AND THIS WILL LEAD TO TRACTION MOTORS CATCHING FIRE AND BURNING UP!
I'm loving that retro music you added at the 12 minute mark! Really suits the time period these gems were built well!
Thanks CNW!
Ns did a great job of getting rid of every unique and interesting locomotive type. I know it's a business but still
Agreed.
Machines get old and tired. They end up costing more money to maintain. It's just the way it is. You wouldn't want to keep paying hundreds of dollars to get your car fixed if it was a hunk of junk that was 30-50 years old and parts were discontinued, would you?
@@PowerTrain611 But Dash 9's are ancient locomotives now, too. Then again, NS bought 1,090 of them originally, so I guess buying them in droves makes them cheaper to maintain maybe??
@@hakeemsd70m Thats just because the Trash 9's GE's. Ease of maintenance isn't one of their best selling points. EMD uses almost entirely 2 stroke engines and modular parts. They're SO much easier to maintain than GE products.
Not to mention the amount of aftermarket parts for GE locomotives pales in comparison to that of EMD... much easier to just scavenge from salvaged locomotives and scrap yards in a pinch too.
Regardless, look at the age difference between the Dash 9's and SD40-2's. It'll blow your mind when you realize how old SD40's are and how many are still in service.
@@PowerTrain611 I see, good descriptions on the topic man. That makes sense about the Modular interchangeable engine parts.
No doubt you're correct, the SD40-2 is the undisputed king of all diesel locomotive reliability. The good folks at LaGrange knew what just what they were doing with the construction of raw motive power. It's been a real pleasure.
I loved the 80 macs but as an electrician at conway engine house they weew a headache to repair especially electrically. They developed very hard to find problems with the TCC computers ( traction control computers ) and was hard to narrow the problem back to that computer. The symptoms would be erradic traction control, unexplained wheel slip, grounds, etc all traced back to something up with the traction control computer. Beyond that issue they were a good reliable locomotive. But that one thorn in the side led to NS wanting to retire them. Eventually they did.
Reliability issues are usually what lead to the downfall of most locomotives. Another good example of that is the C39-8 locomotives. At the time i worked for NS those locomotives had 25 ish years of use and were constantly in tbe shop for grounded main alternators, grounded companion alternators, grounds in tbe high voltage switchgear, grounded traction motors and low voltage grounds wvich could be literally anywhere else in the electrical system not limited to lighting systems.
Yes the SD 70MAC was the preferred power to take the point when I was working for BIG BLUE "Hands down"!!!
Love the 80 Mac's. Only ran a couple on the B&A ... These things are a beast.
I remember seeing these and just admiring the paint scheme. I thought they were the best looking Conrail had. Huge machines.
So it can be said what killed the best locomotive built was its fuel hog 20-cylinder engine, the EMD 2-stroke can be arguably regarded as the best locomotive engine ever built on account of reliability & longevity. Sorry, my story and I'm sticking to it. It's also a known fact GE was in bed with the EPA to force EMD to rid themselves of the 2-stroke engine and force them to start from scratch with a 4-stroke, in a sense, cutting EMD off at the knees. Politics, hasn't ever worked for anything of mention and never will. These newer four-stroke engines from both GE & EMD are boat anchors. Great video as always, love your informative stuff
The SD90MAC's & SD90MACH's with the four stroke 265H's would've actually been successful if EMD did correct harmonic balancing and troubleshooting instead of trying to finish things quickly.EMD at the time was in a eager rush as competition because of GE's AC6000CW's which weren't that great either.We obviously both know that the SD80MAC's won that race.
The four stroke prime movers in the tier fours isn't bad,the Caterpillar 1010J's in the SD70ACE-T4's is actually what the 265H's failed to be.The problem with the SD70ACE-T4's was errors in the computer systems and something to do with the fuel injection systems,unfortunately concluding why they didn't have high sales.
The only true advantage that GE has over EMD is better electronics and traction motors,aside from better fuel efficiency due to them always being four stroke.That's one of the reasons as to how them and Wabtech have EMD/CAT at a standstill.Either way,I personally don't like GE and their way of keeping things extremely complicated without no simplicity,is ridiculous.EMD has always been far easier to work on and do power assembly interchanges if needed.
As for the EPA thing,I agree with you.The EPA was the reason why Caterpillar had to discontinue a ton of their engines with only farming agriculture and construction equipment being exempt.Even though this happened awhile after they became the parent company to EMD.I also truly believe that if GM never had cut off EMD,things would've been very different,even today.General Motors back then was the prime reason why EMD was very successful.
I used to see these brutes coming to Crestline back in the Conrail era. They were a welcome sight.
Every part of my still wishes UP didn’t cancel the CNW order, glad I still saw a couple of them before NS gave them the boot
I remember seeing a couple new sets of these in 1996.
up on the belfountain line. came out well in kokachrome.
I'll bet they did.. I remember seeing a pair moving west out of Philly in CR Quality blue paint.. Since I was on the Schuylkill, I couldn't take any pics or video but I sure do remember the day!
I wonder if these will go to some regionals? I think the BPRR is a good contestant for them as they just recently bought multiple SD60Ms and have been leasing both PW SD70M-2s for a while now. Also they could go to MRL, Utah railway, or maybe even the IAIS as they’ve used some NS 80MACs on their trains before. Could also go to a leasing company.
Sadly its unlikely. The 80Macs are very unique mechanically. Its a shame they didnt make it into the NS SD70ACu program. Due to the expensive one of a kind parts on the 80MACs, higher fuel consumption, and size more then likely they will end up in a scrap yard some day soon. But then you never know, so here it to hope that a few of the Conrail Cadillac's find a new home.
towny72 that makes sense, very sad. I try to be optimistic but something inside me thinks they’ll be sent to the scrappers torch. If that happens, I hope at least one of them gets saved and preserved in CR paint
Imagine EMD buys them, rebuilds them, and then puts them for sale! That would be cool!
@@NS_5350 They could end up as donor material for SD70ACu rebuilds. If nothing else I wish one could make it to a museum. They were unique and are a important part of Conrail history.
You describe a Lot of great details in your videos that set you apart from everyone else. Thanks AC. 👍
Thanks for watching Ken.. I'm glad you enjoy and appreciate them.
The SD80mac came out in the mid 1990s when I was living along the Conrail Boston Line. Back then the internet was new, so information about what trains were coming was gained from other fans.
I heard about one of the first trains with 80s coming out of Selkirk. This made me get up early and get some shots of them coming through the Berkshires.
Nice, I hope you still have those shots.
That was a great video. Was surprised that EMD only made 30 SD80MACs.
It's because Conrail was the only railroad that actually purchased them,with that many orders put in.Chicago Northwestern actually was in the process of purchasing them as well,but then Union Pacific did the merge and canceled it,because they were already invested and interested in the AC6000CW's only.
After the merge with Conrail,seventeen went to Norfolk Southern but thirteen went to CSX.One of them was involved in a serious derailment and ended up being torched and scrapped.Later on CSX gave the dozen to Norfolk Southern to get SD40-2's in return as a trade deal.It didn't matter to CSX giving away those SD80MAC's because they had all of their CW60AC's still which were derated as CW44-6's in later years.
Norfolk Southern had the remaining twenty nine of them and they stayed in service right up to when the covid pandemic was going on,then that's when they started to drastically cut down their power roster.Twenty three of the SD80MAC's were sold to PRLX and immediatley were scrapped.The last six of them left in existence were acquired and currently are owned by Canadian Pacific.They are using them as parts donors for their SD9043MAC's and SD70ACU's.Most if not all of their SD9043MAC's have been rebuilt into SD70ACU's,they additonally have three dozen SD9043MAC's that they purchased from Union Pacific.
Norfolk Southern themselves purchased SD9043MAC's from Union Pacific,among a few others,and also did a rebuild program for SD70ACU's.After the rebuilds,they sold a majority of them to Progress Rail as well.
5:05 I’ve seen this same train come through my town back in 2016! 9669 was leading at the time, heading towards Binghamton! I was too late to get any good pictures of the locos, just overexposed ones.
I'm sorry to hear that, but at least you got to see the train.
Trains21 correction! I looked at my photos again and realized it was a loaded train with 9669 leading to Albany coming from Binghamton!
Looks like the ties we got this spring for CP up on the Havelock at 1:30
CP gets a lot of them from down here. They come out of Kopper's in Muncy, PA.
Great insight, AC! I never saw an 80 in person, but I've always kinda liked the things. I mean, how can you not like a 20 cylinder EMD. Such a shame Uncle Pete canceled C&NW's order. Keep up the good work, AC!
Thanks Trav, I'll surely try!
20 cylinder emd 710, trouble with crank shaft breaking
@@jamesvance8456 You're trying and thinking about the 20-645's in the SD45's and SD45-2's,which did damage cranks.
The 20-710's in the SD80MAC's never had that issue,they were actually the only reliable locomotives with the highest horsepower from a single engine.The AC6000CW's and SD90MAC's & SD90MAC-H's were worse.
@@Slim_Slid you are exactly right, thanks
I really enjoy how informational your videos are, always a pleasure to listen to you and watch the great EMD in action on your channel! (+++1 for covering EMD side of things!)
Thanks for watching and for your words.
Here is what I think: EMD should produce new EMD SD80MAC's. They will still have the 5,000 HP output; however, they will also have the ability to run on Bio-Diesel, and they will have better radiators for filtering exhaust. Essentially, making them high power, high reliability, and safe for the environment. And obviously, I want to keep that certain Phase 1 EMD style of Wide Cab with the two-piece teardrop windshields. They may look dated on the exterior, but they will have the Latest technology inside.
And, if possible, EMD should take another crack at a 6,000 HP engine, except this time, they should PLAN AHEAD and do lots of testing to make a 6,000 HP engine work (+ make it run on Biofuels and clean for the environment). Then they can make renewed SD90MAC locomotives.
Biofuels should be the Next Step for Class 1 railroad corporations as they plan out on how to electrify.
Used to see them so much on the former MGA and on the NS Monongahela line. Hauling coal, always. At first they were still in CR paint with NS patches, then repainted and now sold. Hope they found a good home.
All of them are gone.NS sold 23 to PRLX and they were scrapped.The last 6 of them were bought by CP and are being used as parts donors while in storage.
Lots of great clips and explanations here!
Thanks Man.. So when do you think you'll upload Part 2 to your last video?? Been waiting patiently for it.. I watched the first one at least 20 times!! I loved it!
Well, I was gonna upload that and my winter video last month, but a lot of (good) personal things came up that took priority and responsibility. This weekend I am gonna double check everything and make the final renders, so next week things will be up and running again! :-)
@@CentralPennRailProductions Awesome! Can't wait!
I hope a western railroad like the UP, BNSF or KCS will buy the SD80MACs. They are such cool locomotives, and I hope EMD will revisit the concept again with an American SD80ACE-T4.
Railroads are hesitant to go with anything over 4500 HP these days because of the fear of stranded trains when 1 6000 HP unit goes put vs a 4400 HP unit and the demands of PSR make such monsters unnecessary when you got plenty of Dash 9's, GEVOS, and SD70's that you can run into the ground, rebuild, and repeat and plenty of parts donors to keep the process going.
Here’s to hoping one will possibly be preserved
What's the music at 12:20 ish out of curiosity? Rather informative video, thank you for posting. :)
Thanks for watching Katrina.. The music is a royalty free song that I found online years ago.. The only thing listed for a title is "Cigarette Boat." Strange, I know, but that's what it has for a title.
Well, I just learned a ton of stuff! Very Nice Work! Subbed!
Thanks for your words and sub, they're both much appreciated!
Oh, I needed this..You just don't even know. Thanks AC!
No problem! I'm glad that you enjoyed it.. I always thought that you were more into the Alcos.
@@Trains21 Well ALCOS are still the favorites for me, but I like EMDs alot too!
I love the paint on these units!
It is with great sadness to inform everyone that the 23 SD80MACs owned by Progress Rail have been scrapped. At this time, there are only 6 remaining SD80s, specifically the CP Parts Units.
Does NS still have SD90s?
@@redwolfpiping5701 Whatever SD70ACUs are left is it.
@@Trains21 glad I caught an SD90 on the Pokey when I did then
@@redwolfpiping5701 Most of the SD9043MAC's that Norfolk Southern bought from Union Pacific that they rebuilt into SD70ACU's are now in storage with Progress Rail.They only have a handful left on the roster.They basically were purchased out of storage just to end up back in storage again,for the most part.
Canadian Pacific however still has SD70ACU's in service,on top of three dozen SD9043MAC's they acquired from Union Pacific.
Cancelled SD80ACu just... Sucks... Seeing NS putting many of their active roster to storage, even sell them to the others. I wonder if they will face a power shortage
Yeah over her in Hudson Ohio we see lots of foreign power and SD40s
It will be ironic if NS leases its own retired power 😂
Yes one day, they will face a serious power shortage. Because those ge locomotives is not suitable for YARD and switching services. Nor can they drag heavy FREIGHTs on the mountainous grades.these ge locomotives are designed for fast freights.and not for slow drag freights!the difference is the gear ratio. High speed locomotives are not ideal when it comes to slow freight
Excellent video on the legendary SD80MAC, AC. Thanks to you, I now I know what model once filled the void on CSXT's roster after their original order of SD70MAC's ended at the 4589 Spirit of Nashville. I was sure the SD80ACu program would go through, too bad I was wrong. At least CP got 6 of the Middle Macs. I hope the rest of the fleet has a future elsewhere too, along with the NS SD70M's.
Thanks Hakeem.. I hope so too.
Thanks AC. People like you help me learn locomotive identification
No problem, thank you for watching.
Thanks trains21 for the outstanding and informative video.Endeavors are unmatched.Bliss
No problem.. Thanks for watching.
My mind failed locomotive identification after 1980. Now I'm widowed and retired is there something to replace Jerry Pinkepank's Second Diesel Spotters Guide? It was quicker than Googling.
I couldn't say, but maybe one of the viewers knows something.
Great video 21! I understand the SD80MAC better now👍🏻🚂
I really hope Canadian National buys a few I would love to see them in the Iron ore trains up here in northern Minnesota
That would be nice but I'm not optimistic about CN, but you never know.
Very enjoyable and informative as always!!
Thanks for watching, Tony!
Great video AC! Thanks for all the good info on the SD80MAC! I do, of course, love the ALCOs. But I have always been an EMD fan! My model railroad features a WWII train pulled by four EMD FT locomotives. Those were built from 1939 to 1945. Cheers, Danny
highly entertaining, greetings from suffolk uk, avid ns fan. take care!!
Can't believe they're going to be gone soon. What's remarkable, is how long they've survived!
Indeed!
Thank you for doing a video on this. You did an amazing job. 👍
Thanks Man.. I'm glad you like it.
I do sd80mac conrail I love ones from ns I am going miss these guys a lot grew up Pacific Northwest they been fun see them
Nice video Trains21. One thing you didn't mention was that the SD90 Mac were designed to be powered by a 4 stroke 16-265H, a 16 cylinder prime mover unlike the SD80Mac which was powered by a 2 stroke 20 cylinder prime mover. The KCS had 10 SD90Mac's on a short term lease. They were all former UP units that had been returned in trade for new SD70ace. I think they didn't even last a year on the KCS do to breakdowns. I happened to tour the KCS locomotive shop in Shreveport LA at this time. The shop boss said that EMD had done every thing to make sure the SD90 would fail. It was designed with no common sense. They ran all electrical lines and liquid lines on the same side of the engine. Even one knows hot wires start fires and putting them next to hot oil lines makes bad tings happen. He also said if we keep them it will take over year to fix all the F-up's on them and make them reliable just like the SD50's. Right now we can't even get valve cover gaskets for them. A few mounts later KCS ended the lease and ordered more GE's... Keep up the great job Trains21 !
Thanks man, and understood.. But the focus of this video was the 80s.
What a great video I must say!! I love the sd80macs with a passion it’s sad that there leaving NS now they where great units but at least I’ve seen quite a bit of them
👍🚂👁 Thanks AC. You great with the you present your volg.Question how or where would I find info of reopening a line. Here in NJ thru rosell Linden with new towers looks to be catanares Ot had been used by either CNJ Lehigh valley or PRR. IT DOES either cross NEC or hook up with.
Thanks DJ, I would start with a basic internet search of the line and narrow my search from there.
What is going to happen to EX Amtrak EMD F40PHR units 401,402,404,405,407 and 408???
I don't know.. Maybe end up on a shortline or worse, scrapped.
@@Trains21 I hope that EX Amtrak F40PHR unit 404 will be safe from scrap because I love that unit.
As Jeremey Clarkson of English Top Gear, had a habit of bellowing, POWER!!!!!!!! Beast power at that. Show us what ya got, G.E.!!!
That's right!
Where were all the RR ties going?
Canada I think, based on the CP cars they were in.
Is this PSR part 2? Or are we not there yet? Can't wait!!! Awesome video brother, like always.
Part 1 comes Friday.. They'll be labeled as such!!
@@Trains21 *pulls up a chair and waits until Friday* :) can you toss me a bag of Doritos? I might get peckish before then.
@@realcanadianrailfan110 I think we'll both need a bag.. This is gonna be good!
@Eugene Stoner That or Old Crow, Jack Daniels... i'm a multinational drinker.
I saw one of these before
It was leading a manifest
With a Ns dash9 and sd40-2 behind it
Cool.
AC i so wanna tk u. So much for this wonderful tribute to my fav big blue diesels these are my babies so much appreciated this much i fills my ❤ with joy as and always will be a huge big blue fan tks and again. My rail family on facebook will love this tribute. On my rail group called BIG BLUE FOREVER ....
AC plz do me a fav if u could can u plz make a vid of the 80 Mac's what ever RR buy. Them I'd love to see them in there new paint tk u so much
@@djmattson6491 I'll certainly try.. If they're bought.
@@Trains21 tk u let's hope that's all we can do
Excellent video my friend !!! 😍👌
Norfolk Southern sd80macs have been pretty good so far even the rebuild sd70acu aren’t to bad
The 15 CNW SD80MACs were apparently canceled by UP for 15 UP SD90MACs.
Union Pacific withdrew those orders of SD80MAC's after the merge because they were only interested in the AC6000CW's at the time.Later on was when the SD90MAC's & SD90MAC-H's were ordered by them,
including Canadian Pacific.
Wait a minute, did you get that bit of trivia from Locomotive Wiki or Trains and Locomotives Wiki? If so, I actually wrote that! Lol I'm HenryDuckFan, the guy that founded both wikis and wrote both articles on both sites!
Maybe! There were about 12 sources that I used and yours very well could've been one of them.. If so, thanks for the info!
nice video and i might see you some day
I sadly doubt KCS will go for the 80MACS. Especially since they have their eyes on those SD70ACe-T4's at the moment. Awesome Video, AC!
Thanks Man.. You could be right.. We'll have to see how things play out.
Well idk about that Because I heard mixed results about the EMD Tier 4 they're leasing
@@JackCarsonsRailroadVideos Me too.. NS cancelled their order, UP sidelined theirs for a while and orders have been slow so only time will tell.
Great stuff, AC!
Thanks JC!
Thank you lots of information. If I were to take a test I would fail, can’t remember much at my advanced age. Next time. Edward
I love SD80MACs!! but as of right now in 2021 how many still exist?
I don't know. Canadian Pacific bought some of them.
O of maybe like 15 but they will probably be rare on the Sunbury or any line. But yeah I haven't yet seen one you i will have to see one before they go extinct.
All of them right now, CP bought 6 for parts and progress rail got the rest
Will Africa buy the SD80MACs since they are building new standard gauge railways there
I don't know but I'd rather see them there than get scrapped.
Love these 80sand90 mac's. I wish you would of filmed the whole mixed freight trains, it gets bored when you jus focus on jus the locos. I've GOT several of both these models on my ho layout. Great topic. 👌✌️👍
I wonder if the western New York and Pennsylvania will buy a couple 80macs because they just got ac6000 so I think they might 🤔
Conrail did a lot of testing with the 80 macs on the Buffalo Line because of Keating Summit. This part of the Buff is now leased by WNY&P from NS. Would be nice to see them there again.
Awesome video! Are you aware of the current status of these units?
We would’ve had more if Conrail and C&NW not go defunct before they could order more, in other words, they’d go defunct a year later than they actually did but not before receiving their SD80MACs
Lol like receiving all your model railroad equipment then end up getting evicted before you started get some good use out of them awful feeling indeed
I love the EMD SD80MAC with all my heart but NS acquired all of CSX'S 80MAC's and has now purged them all off their complete roster to other railroads
This man has caught SD80MACs, our arguments are invalid
I am gonna get the new Athearn, and another Kato, dang run em anyway. I especially liked that they did not put that low visibility newer cab on them. That ruined the look of the 90/43MACs they did.
I’m really ashamed of NS and PRLX for being greedy instead of sparing one. Hopefully Canadian Pacific does
It won't happen,Canadian Pacific got the several that are left which weren't scrapped and will use them as parts donors until they are only worth scrap.
Awesome trains 21
Thanks William.
Ns has shot themselves in the foot because a power shortage is coming to them and their ge fleet is not going to be able to do everything. Have you ever seen a freight pulled by ge locomotives only to have an emd unit on there with them?the reason is simple.ge locomotives are not designed for pulling slow freight trains because they are geared for high speed trains. And not for slow drag trains .IF YOU PUT A HIGHER GEARED LOCOMOTIVE ON A HEAVY, SLOW TRAIN AND PUT IT ON a 2.5%grade,the traction motor's will burn up because they are turning too slowly to absorb all the power produced by the engine and generator set.another reason not to use these units onslow trains is if you have three of these on a train and the train only has 10 cars and you speed up to 80 mph,you can cause the traction motor's to turn faster until the armature windings are thrown out and the motors will be destroyed and they will catch fire.
NS is gonna soon wish they kept their SD80MACs
Rip the sd80macs I heard there all being scrapped 1995-2022
I'm sad to say, your worries are confirmed. The 23 PRLX units were just scrapped.
Right now 6 remain with Canadian Pacific as parts sources. But I’m also sometimes told that either only 2 remain intact or that only 2 are left. Still there is a slim chance for CRHS to make Canadian Pacific change their minds and spare an 80MAC
And the mighty SD90s are being turned into SD70s....
It would be nice if Strasburg bought one of the MACs.
That would be nice.
Another awesome informative video ac. I grew up in central Jersey watching the fall and split of conrail between csx and Norfolk southern
Thanks Tommy.
Do you think NS got rid of them because of PSR or a different reason?
I think it was PSR.
Aren't they using them at Cresson,Pa.?
I love your videos
Awesome video!
Thanks Man!
I know this sounds crazy but. Why not place a single SD80MAC into preservation as the most modern piece of equipment in North America to be preserved and so when the others are scrapped atleast a single unit can represent the fleet. Afterall imagine it hauling a excursion.
That would be nice but the Class 1s nowadays only seem to care about money. That's the best answer that I can give you.
That’s so sad only 16th years old when 13 or 14th really started like awesome SD80MACS also I like standard cab dash 9 s and like dash 9 Sd70M as will just upsetting see them go and Said being action off or put in storage sad I knew dash 9s rebuilt just upsetting see what happen to railroads
Good Stuff AC !
In all honesty, I can't wait. I'm objective in many ways, biased in others. I hope you gained wisdom from the book, good or bad, right or left.
I have, but in all fairness, most of what I learned won't come into play until Parts 4 and 5.. The first 3 parts are the warm-up and/or the launchng pad and prequel.
I knew they had problems with the SD90s, that's why they wound up sidelined.. I didn't know that the ACUs are now giving them trouble too.. Shakes head.
@@Trains21 fair enough, and as Eric Idle from Monty Python said "say no more , wink wink, know what I mean, say no more"
@@realcanadianrailfan110 Perfectly understood! :-)
@@Trains21 yeah. there's a reason you see most trailing. As leaders, just issues, software and other things. Progress rail techs must get alot of frequent flyer miles between Kentucky and Calgary. Some have had to been left on sidings because of various failures, both systemic and mechanical. Most get lugged back to the main shops in Calgary, or Montreal, if they're close enough.
I could make a video about just that topic.
Man i always turned to NS for being different, all going to storage? Sad news.
Not storage.. Off the property and the roster.. Even sadder.
@Eugene Stoner I meant for variety using older EMDs and stuff. Everybody already knows that the new EMD is not very good. And both manufacturers only make one model each. = Boring Railroading
I honestly Hope KCS buys em all and rebuilds em to 80ACU's as NS was originally intended to do (Before They Went PSR)
That would be nice.. Or maybe the WNYP since they just accepted GE ACs.. Plus the MACs would be operating on home rails again.. We can always hope.
@@Trains21 Well as of right now KCS is leasing EMDX Tier 4's and They need new power so Good chance they buy new power
@@JackCarsonsRailroadVideos I sure hope so.
well if it was me...this is where a RL kitbash comes in..this is where you take worn SD45's with old 20's in them and transfer the 80 gear that is needed engine/controls etc into the 45 and install the cab and long nose sandboxs sd80 radiator flares stapled to the sd45 flares as elephant ears and the 80 trucks on the 45 frame..for a short frame SD45/80MAC 5000hp unit that fits tighter curves.
take those old dc progress rail 45's as a base and correct ah construction technical issues along the way
and these construction items seen as errors from a shop point of view..these are not issues seen as a thing by computer cad-cam processes of construction
a further note on another use for the frames and traction motors the GG1 electeric carbody's are 79' and change and should set right on the frame and trucks of a 80mac remove fuel tank and engine etc install switchgear and a steam boiler install water/fuel tank for boiler/trainpower genset and put the famous gg1 carbodys back on the rails
7213 was the final SD80MAC i saw and will be the last :(
At least you got to see one.
@@Trains21 i did mange to catch other 80MACs though and then 7213 was the last one i saw which was last year trailing behind a SD70M
@@RdgRails2102 Oh ok.
Great catch QQ,,,,
Unfortunately, the SD90MAC wasn't very successful with CP. Some were delivered from the factory, and some came as kits. They just broke down a lot. Even the rebuilds spend hours in the shops and break down on the road.
I knew they had problems with the SD90s, that's why they wound up sidelined.. I didn't know that the ACUs are now giving them trouble too.. Shakes head.
Well now there gonna be all gone from Norfolk southern rip 1996 to 2020
Enjoyed the video very much. FYI - VALE is pronounced “valay”.
Ok thanks.. Also for watching.
Since when does NS still have SD80MACs?
I wonder what the benefits are of 5’3” width compared to our 4”8-1/2”?
Hmmmm
Good question....
The 1,6m gauge is rather common here in Brazil, so locos are interchangeable, also the allow for easy conversion of standard gauge traction motors, plus they allow heavier weight per axel, wider carriages and call for wider turns enabling bigger locomotives.
Check the DDM45 out, its a SD45 running on DD35A/DDA40X trucks on meter gauge/3ft 3in
@@fernandomarques5166 That makes sense given the heavy mining you do there in Brazil.. Thanks for answering that.. I've seen the DDM45 in photos.
EMD unit reduced themselves out of business😢.
AC power was actually invented by Nikola Tesla as a solution to Edison's problem of voltage loss in his DC power grids. Edison thought that it was a stupid idea, and since it's invention it's proved to be better in almost every way.
Lord only knows what'll happen to these beasts now that NS sold them off.
Sad, I know.
Selling the 80macs probably because of the ptc
That would be my guess.
It is unthinkable in Japan to stack two containers.
why
It's unthinkable in n.c. to give a shit 😝
I don’t understand why ns wouldn’t rebuild them the same as their 90macs