Great job Chris & team! https://railfan.com/amtrak-f40-restored ... iii-paint/

That looks really superb. It is a curious coincidence that 231 and 232 were units we used to photograph some of the training programs for the F40PH locomotives.

PC

Now we need a string of phase III Heritage coaches to go with it. Are they going to restore the capability to generate HEP?

Looks good. And 307 will be getting new paint too. Good times for F40PHs

A THING OF BEAUTY !!!!!

VIVA AMTRAK #231 !!!

And where do these training programs be now?

The surviving F40PH training program materials, notes, and manuals from two of the EMD Instructors and from the Service Manager who handled Amtrak are preserved at the Barriger Library.

PC

I believe that is next up since the cosmetic side is finished, yes.

Love the "Screamers". (Although they did leave a lot of hard-of-hearing engineers.)

Huh ?? What'd ya say ??

You had a head start on that, Paul, considering where the turbo generators were mounted on the CP & LE locomotives.....

That is true, and the ringing in my ears every day reminds me of that and many other abuses I put them through.

I recall an article by an Amtrak engineer around 35 years ago in Trains Magazine singing the praises of the F40PH as "an engineer's locomotive", because among other things it had a standard AAR control stand, it loaded fast, and it had a standard, accurate air gauge. All that was unlike the new P40s at that time, which he said was designed by someone who worked at a desk, and who thought engineers wanted to work at a desk, too, which forced engineers to sit in the same position all day long.

Regarding ringing in one's ears, I heard about a tinnitus cure on NPR the other day in which they apply voltage to your tongue, apparently to make your brain take the spotlight off of the tinnitus.

I'm a railroader, not a doctor, so my advice may be of limited value. 13 years of air horns and turbochargers with no hearing protection left me both legally deaf, and with constant ringing in my ears. (And one night I heard the yardmaster tell me VERY QUIETLY to stop at the very last split second before my brakeman was squished like a zit, preventing his premature demise. I would have missed it if I had been wearing ear plugs.)

The more I obsessed over the "tinnitus", the worse it got. One night I figured out that if I ignored it, maybe it would go away. Over time it did just that. It's all about self control.

Even though legally deaf, I had a pretty decent career as a violinist after leaving the railroad. When I applied for disability, my hearing was tested both for impairment, and to see how well I compensated for it, and my score on the compensation part was the highest that these doctors had ever seen in better than 20 years of testing people's ears. They asked me how I did it, but my claim was denied because I was still capable of working. In my case, "tinnitus" was all in my head, but this advice may or may not work for anybody else.

AMEN.

Since there's a bit of topic drift, I'll throw in my two bits and preach a bit - a cautionary tail for you younger boys & girls and a reminder for the rest of us. I've had tinnitus for about forty years. Not from railroading but from being a rock musician and being a music aficionado. Loud is loud. Your ears are NOT indestructible and you will suffer when you're older so hearing protection is a must BEFORE you start to have any symptoms. I've worn various forms of hearing protection for close to thirty years but the damage was done. Over the last two years, I've had a very marked decrease in upper mid to high frequencies and anything over 60dB (quiet conversation) is distorted. I've removed myself from the operating crew for the safety of everyone else as I no longer trust my hearing.

So put your big boy or girl pants on and take care of your ears, dammit. "You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone" - Joni Mitchell

As to the original topic, that there is one spiffy paint job. Nice!