Anyone have a rough idea as to the cost of shipping a locomotive about 300 miles?

Also I need a good guess of cost regarding the prepping and painting a road locomotive such as a C636.

Parcel post or General Delivery? I know the Shipping Depot claims to be able to ship ANYTHING.

I recently looked into shipping an E8 a similar distance over a class one.
aside from starting out badly, after finding the right people to talk to,etc the cost was going to be about $3500.
My first mistake was talking to the class ones sales department.
I've found that it is best to go thru the local inspector as they may be a bit more "open" to shipping various equipment. Apparently, on some class ones, they have started requiring "self aligning" type couplers on all locomotives, even though they are shipping "dead". In my case the local inspector was willing to ship it without changing the couplers.
The couplers would have run about $30K to put on that loco, as well, the class ones sales people had the cost estimated at about $30K to move it without the coupler change in what they call "special" train service.
Inspection wise, all ladders,grab irons, etc need to be in good condition, NO WELDS on steps. Traction motor wicks and axle bearings must be checked and lubed, wheels need to be within specs, brakes in date as well as handbrake working and in date. Theres more as well, but I'll stop ranting for now!

Movement of railway equipment is generally under "Rule 11" rates - that is each carrier quotes and bills their own charges and interline pricing is not available. Most railroads do not deviate from their published rates which in most cases can be found on line.

Norfolk Southern info: http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Customers/Shortline/locomotives.html

BNSF: http://domino.bnsf.com/website/prices.nsf/PublicationsLookup/98E23D9FD1F10C0D8625745C006D8CEB?Open

CSX: http://www.csx.com/?fuseaction=customers.pricing_lists-detail&bui=EM&bun=Emerging%20Markets%20#CSXT6051

Alan Maples

John C.

Our company,Wasatch Railroad Contractors paints and handles interchange moves for equipment. Currently we are painting a LARGE number of passenger cars. Due to the obligation of my contract, I can not say which cars.....but a lot of them.

We have room in our schedule to paint more equipment.

A locomotive like the one you mention would cost as little as $20,000.00 to paint and as much as $75,000.00 to paint. It really depends on how much prep and detail work you want done. This project would take about 30 days start to finish. You need to factor in storage as well into the cost plus your interchange fees. Our paint booth is located just out of Denver, CO. We have access to both UP and BNSF.

If you wish to contact us off line, you are welcome to. Feel free to e-mail me at jrimmasch@wrrc.us any time. If you want to be more specific about your project feel free to send us any info, our estimates are free of charge!

Best of luck, hope this helps!

John E. Rimmasch
Wasatch Railroad Contractors

http://www.wrrc.us

Ihave had the fortune of having to ship a locomotive over a Class One and I had worked out a deal where they could use the locomotive for power in exchange for moving it to me. The move was worked out locally. The locomotive was inspected and moved where it needed to be. I got my locomotive...the railroad got a few thousand horsepower. Everyone went away happy. On the other hand there have been occasions when locomotives moving "live" like this have gone an extra thousand miles before getting to where they needed to be.

Hmmm, John... large number of passenger cars... paint booth outside of Denver. I could make a pretty educated guess having seen some pics over on Trainorders.

(BTW: I still remember what a nice guy you were the day I met you running the Heber Creeper 7 or so years ago. Can't remember if it was #618 or #75 that day.)

The CSX has derailed more locomotives without self aligning couplers but with blocks limiting the swing of the couplers. Now if you want to move a locomotive on CSX it must be equiped with self aligning couplers and no limiting blocks will be accepted. The A&R was moving a locomotive during the time of the derailment adding a week to a move that should have taken 2 days. That was after the engine had spent a week wondering around the southeast lost. It seems everybody moving locomotives will suffer for the inability of CSX to train engineers to properly handle trains.

John Bohon

Can someone clarify about the self aligning couplers vs. whatever older locomotives had and what the difference is between that and a run of the mill freight car? I take it that locomotive couplers have a greater range of motion.

Thanks.

Steve

This rule against moving locomotives without alignment control couplers in regular freight train service is getting to be pretty common, unfortunately. I believe the BNSF has the same policy.

In the case of the E8 that I was shipping, the unit has "H" tight lock couplers. It was probably built with them, as they are common on later passenger equipment.
The difference is, when looking at the coupler "shank" or draw bar, the self aligning type have a kinked shape, rather than being a straight bar and the end where the pin goes has a pair of "ears" rather than the old style round end. self aligning has much less movement, but are more difficult to deal with when switching.
supposedly, under heavy braking- presumably in DB or perhaps using the independant brake? Old style couplers can allow the loco consist to "jack knife". at least thats what UP claims.........I think it has alot more to do with poor train handling and a desire to not ship private equiment.

Your last sentence contains a very large amount of truth.

Howard P.
Cynical, CT

It is not uncommon at all to have to replace bumping posts due to poor communication between the brakeman/conductor and engineer. Sometimes (if you're lucky) the bolts shear off at the joints just before the bumping post, and the train pushes the track with bumping post attached until it stops. Pretty easy to rerail and repair the damage. But I've also seen bumping posts hit so hard that the welds failed where it looked like they were squashed from above. It's common practice to design "cushion" track, usually at least a half car-length, on the end of track for just this reason. But from what I've seen that still doesn't prevent the train crew from shoving up to (and sometimes over) the bumper even if they didn't have to. So imagine if your E8 or whatever was between the train and the bumping post....

Class 1s will move locomotives without self-aligning couplers. In January 2008 NS moved my T6 from Michigan to Ohio. A switcher is not equipped with self-aligning couplers. We used hard rubber blocks mounted in the coupler pockets on each side of the shank.
After it was prepped and painted CSX moved it, with the rubber blocks, from Ohio to Luke, Maryland. Both segments were over $3,000

> ... clarify about the self aligning couplers vs. whatever ...

Years ago railroads learned that locomotives dead-in-tow at track speed generate some severe side to side movement; enough to be identified as the contributing cause of derailments. Alignment control couplers do just that; they keep the unit in line with the rails, significantly reducing side to side motion. This is accomplished by using couplers with wider than standard shanks, decreasing the distance from the side of the shank to the inside wall of the pocket.

Prepping and painting: if you have it done commercially, you have no control over the cost or quality of the job. I would hope that an aspiring 501(c)3 would be prepared to invest a healthy dose of sweat equity. When you learn to do it, you will save tens of thousands of dollars over time and be happier with the results. The paint you chose will be a large factor in the total project cost.