The F40PH Preservation Society finally got a 501c3 classification from the IRS, and filed with the Massachusetts attorney general's office. This wasn't hope that getting in a position to receive MBTA 1013 and 1008. It turns out that MBTA plans to cosmetically restore 1013 and place it on display outside of the Boston Engine Terminal. And with complications being able to move a locomotive to the location we were hoping to use due to the switch connecting the location being removed and lack of interest It looks like 1008 will be scraped. We will most likely continue being a relatively stagnant organization until another opportunity arises.

Reach out to Caltrain.
https://www.caltrain.com/projects/electrification

Or Metra. Or the Grand Canyon Railway. Or North Carolina Transportation Museum before they butcher their Amtrak F40PH into just a cab car. Or the California State RR Museum about keeping up theirs. Or find another alternative site for an MBTA one.

Convince us all that this isn't just a personal vanity project for you with MBTA.

The F40PH technical documentation is at the Barriger Library, preserved for when and if it is ever needed again. This includes the papers and materials of 2 of the 3 instructors who worked on the program for EMD. Also a lot of supplemental material WVB produced in his subsequent years at Metra.

MBTA just announced a solicitation for technical support services for the overhaul of their fleet of HSP46 commuter locomotives. The e-mail came in this afternoon. Those are already ten years old.

PC

It would be great to see an F40PH preserved in Amtrak paint. Is there not one preserved as such currently? They were so ubiquitous and key to the success of Amtrak's LD network that it would be hard to tell the story of railroad history without one.

Where are there any number of F40PH's still in existence? Any at Beech Grove? Eventually VIA will upgrade their power. Are their locos former Amtrak engines?

If I'm counting right, five at the Grand Canyon Railway--three ex-Amtrak, two ex-NJ Transit, and as I understand it another ex-Amtrak one is currently being prepped at LTE in Ohio for shipment to the GCRY.

As far as I know any non-"cabbage" ones from Amtrak were sold off to Larry's Truck & Electric, with many of them already butchered/scrapped and some still intact.

Doesn't the California State Railroad Museum have an Amtrak F40PH, in full Amtrak paint and operable?

I wonder what happened to Amtrak #231: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46297

As of a year or so ago, yes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_SrtuqaDsE

California State railroad Museum has an Amtrak phase 3 painted unit that's in morning condition. F40PHR 231 and it's sister unit SDP40F (SDP40F were Amtraks first new locomotive but failed and were rebuilt into F40PHs) were/at the Nevada State railroad Museum, but may have/or get evicted. North Carolina transportation Museum, has a F40PH and are planning to convert it into a cab car HEP generator. Other than that no other Museume has them. Despite the significance of these units both regionally and nationally, a lot of organizations dropped the ball.

"Dropped the ball" or just didn't have the finances/wherewithal to obtain and move one?

Part of the problem with preserving one is that they are still in demand for commercial use in many places, like the Panama Railroad and Nashville Star commuter service, not to mention the CSX OCS train power, and especially Chicago's METRA. It's basically a GP40-2 cab unit, one of the most successful Diesel-Electric locomotive series ever built, and along with the electric AEM-7 one of the two locomotives that saved Amtrak in it's early years. I don't think you could touch one if it comes on the market for much under $200K in working condition. I know if I needed a passenger unit for regular use, one would be at the top of my list. I feel for you, I miss the "screamers" as well, having worked for Amtrak in their heyday. Watching a set of them bring a train onto a station platform at night with the roof-mounted strobes flashing, bracketing a set of Nathan K5LA horns; a real bell ringing; and one of them at full-throttle generating HEP as they stretch-braked their train to a squealing stop was a bracing experience.

Besides the valid points raised by Brother Woodring, there's another flaw involved: Most railfans and rail preservatinists are provincial, looking at only their local railroads/scene and not national significance. It falls to "bigger picture" curators to recognize the significance of something like an Amtrak piece or a RailBox/Trailer Train car.

So North Carolina transportation Museum as a non-for-profit corporation was able to get an F40PH from Amtrak for $1. Chris Fussell who I don't believe had a non-profit affiliation at the time was able to get one for $25,000. So yeah and the early 2000s there were plenty of opportunities. Apparently the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania was also offered one but they turned it down in favor of a rare but not really significant locomotive. The MBTA probably sold the lions share of theirs for around $5,000 each recently. Even though those ones weren't horrendous condition doesn't take much to stop a few coats of paint on and allow people to go into cab and play with all the controls.

The cost of turbocharger repairs for an F40PH is a strong deterrent to a preservation group owning and operating one of these units, plus dawdling along at 15 MPH while generating HEP load for a few lights on a couple of cars in weather where there is no appreciable air conditioning or heating demand on the HEP system is about the worse thing you can do to a turbocharger. Notice that the rail grinding version of these uses a Roots blower engine.

If you were operating one for a museum service you would be better off supplying HEP with something else, and operating the F40PH without generating HEP.

Or far more practical, preserve an F40PH-2C or one of the F40PH-CAT rebuilds with separate HEP.

After the years and years of discussion of the F40PH on RYPN, can anyone remember the person who primarily caused the F40PH-2C to be built?

PC