With NS retiring, selling, or scrapping all of their SD60’s, is there any chance for atleast one to be donated? I don’t know how NS is with donating things , but i think one of these would be a great way to show 21st century Eastern railroading. The SD60’s were and still are a common sight on NS and CSX today. I’m not saying I’m going to start a “Go Fund Me” or any effort, but I would like to know others opinions. Just thinking aloud here, but if enough people thought it was a good idea, an effort COULD be made. A washing/paint job would be all that’s needed for a static museum piece, so I wonder it NS would consider it....

SD60's aren't a common sight at CSX or Norfolk Southern.

NS has retired and sold all their SD60's, all of their SD60M's, and 19 of their 41 SD60I's (With the other 22 inactive and stored pending retirement and sale). CSX has retired and sold all their SD60's, all but one SD60I (which is stored and planned for retirement/sale), and all but 7 SD60M's with these set to go soon enough (They're the units with 3rd rail notches).

Only the SD60E rebuilds are safe for now at Norfolk Southern. But they're not as active in recent weeks as they were, with the policy now to prioritize AC power and Dash 9's. Most of the fleet is basically halfway between something like BNSF's LUGO fleet and power that's actually in daily use. They're running regularly and not officially stored, but are often spending days at a time sitting in major yards between assignments.

Norfolk Southern has been busy rotating them through Altoona to have their Norfolk Southern designed split cooling system removed and returned to factory specifications, utilizing components stripped from retired SD60's that have been sold for scrap. Apparently the NS designed system wasn't as successful as hoped, but since it was a problem free system even if the hoped for fuel savings didn't quite materialize, it has the rumor mill busy.

The gist of the speculation is that the swap back to factory components in place of the proprietary NS components on these recent rebuilds will make these more marketable to outside parties, so this step may be happening with the intention to soon auction at least a large slice of the SD60E fleet. Makes sense given Norfolk Southern's recent AC bug, the roll out of PSR leaving hundreds of locomotives excess, and the resale value of these heavily rebuilt locomotives with many years of life left that aren't being fully utilized now.

Unlike most of the SD60's, SD60M's, and SD60I's that have departed the CSX/NS fleets with no future for them, these SD60E rebuilds will find a good home if that comes to pass.

Would NS sell off the SD60E’s even though they are recent rebuilds? I thought these locomotives were DC to AC’s? Hopefully at least the 911, 6920, and 6963 are saved for preservation. They are some of the most recognizable locomotives on the system besides the heritage units. Almost every railfan knows them by sight.

No, they're still DC.

These SD60E's have a long life to live before they're museum candidates. They're basically brand new DC motored road units from circa 2010-2015 or so, thanks to the capital rebuild program and various upgrades that Norfolk Southern performed.

It was a success for Norfolk Southern and the locomotives haven't been a disappointment for the mechanical or operating departments, but they belatedly realized just how much of a game changer that AC propulsion was. When that shift came about, all interest in performing major in-kind rebuilds of DC motored road power evaporated and the program ended ~100 units prematurely (Hence the recent elimination of the remaining unrebuilt SD60's and all SD60M's and I's).

So if they end up cast offs in the next several years like is speculated by some railfans, their post-NS future is all but assured. And below is a list of the highlights of the work that Altoona did with the SD60E program, courtesy of AltoonaWorks.info.

- Engine upgraded to 16-710G3B-IC w/ EFI and Tier 2 emisions with split cooling (note: emissions sticker states certified to Tier 0+)
- EM2000 microprocessor installed, including all new electrical cabinet
- New widecab installed with a/c, cab signals & LSL, original long hood retained
- New crashworthy fuel tank installed on early rebuilds
- Changed from long hood forward to short hood forward where applicable
- KNORR (CCB2) electronic air brake installed. Motor-driven air compressor installed initially, but was a failure, and those that got it were converted back to shaft-driven
- "Layover equipment" and NS-designed (at Juniata) split cooling installed with added intercooler fan
- 6921-6926 (later 6946-6951) plus 6934 and up equipped with EMDEC Electronic Control Unit (ECU) system, others equipped with Interstate and later changed over to EMDEC
- 6900-6929 equipped with AR11 main alternator and new CA7 companion alternator
- 6930 and up equipped with AR11 main alternator and rebuilt CA5 companion alternator
- Initially the first few SD60Es were rated at 3800 hp, but they and the rest have been upped to 4000 hp

Why? Why would anyone want to ?

Mr. Starr

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Because they're very much a part of railroad history.

It might be tough for some people to grasp, but it didn't stop with the end of steam or retirement of the covered wagons.

People said the same for all kinds of early diesels that are not around in any numbers or not at all.
I remember as a kid, I heard a museum person saying they'd never have a Baldwin Shark because of how ugly they were and "nobody would ever come here to see one," even if one were donated to them.
Heck, think of all the steam that got scrapped and nobody lifted a finger to save one, either because they seemed too pedestrian or not pretty enough to merit preservation.

That and it's easier to get a certain type of locomotive for preservation while there are plenty of locomotives available. Case in point that is only slightly OT-the transportation museum that I am active with has a mission to preserve Arizona transportation history. One of our divisions collects and restores Arizona transit buses.

Once a model of buses is retired by City of Tucson, we can either wait twenty years and attempt to locate an example to preserve or get one when the entire class is retired. We have worked with the City and when an entire model is being retired, the City will set one aside for preservation. We often (but not always) get spare parts that are specific to that model. We also get the service manuals and parts manuals. Therefore, our museum has not only antique buses, but modern buses that will become antiques in fifteen or twenty years. Only, we got them while the supply was plentiful.

I considered adding something on the GE standard cabs, but I didn’t. Last month, there were two Dash 9-40C’s left at Cresson Steel that hadn’t been parted out and one C39-8 at the shops. The same goes with a D944CW. These locomotives should be preserved as is to represent 21st century railroading. Hey maybe someone can get NS to leave an unrebuilt Dash 9 or two for museums.

The problem that confronts a lot of would-be diesel preservation in 2019:

Even the alleged "junk" has value far above scrap value.

Railroads might have been fine in the past with cooperating with the preservation of a locomotive model where the manufacturer has shut down, leaving it an "orphan" on the roster, and by now darned few masochists are out there trying to keep Alcos, Baldwins, FMs, or the like alive.

But EMD and GE foster lively trade in "aftermarket" parts and modularity, and even the "lemons" of the loco market can still command six figures as parts and rebuild fodder.

Go look at the results of a recent Class One surplus auction. If you can't bring those kind of dollars to the table, fuhgeddaboutit.

Your best strategy is to trail any that find second or third homes and stalk them; you may find a more sympathetic ear with the new owners ten or twenty years later. Or, run a good enough museum that a Class One will take seriously the request of a donation as a PR move and tax write-down.

Now, you want locos that don't have much of a secondary market that may be cheap? Amtrak may still have an AEM-7 or two to sell, and there's a large fleet of electric locos that will be rendered surplus in Arizona in about two months....... but the shipping isn't free with Amazon Prime.

Already extinct, at least in its original standard cab form.

GE's last standard cab C-C was the C40-9 for Norfolk Southern. All have been retired and rebuilt as AC44C6M's with AC traction, new trucks, a new electrical system, and a new GE widenose and cab.

Would've been nice to have seen the cab and nose of one saved since it was the last of the line and was what differentiated it from thousands of run of the mill C44-9W's, but I believe they all went to scrap.



If you're talking intact locomotive, you must've saw Dash 8-40C's rather than the Dash 9 model. Norfolk Southern isn't scrapping the Dash 9's. They're being rebuilt as AC44C6M's and only the cab and short hood have been going to Cresson.

All C40-9's in their original form have been gone for months. NSDash9.com on their AC44C6M roster shows 123 of the 125 C40-9's that once were rostered as having been rebuilt as AC44C6M's, starting with the prototypes of 2015 and going through December 2018. The total actually is 124, since AC44C6M #4063 was wrecked and scrapped and thus doesn't show on the current roster page.

That last C40-9, #8798, was scrapped after the Georgetown KY head-on collision last year and didn't make it into the AC44C6M program (Which is continuing in 2019, rebuilding C40/C44-9W's into additional AC44C6M's).

No as-built C40-9's are extant in 2019.

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