This was one of 3 Progress Rail PR43C locomotives, rebuilt from old EMD SD50s. This specific locomotive started life as Norfolk Southern 6525, built 7/84 by the Electro Motive Division of General Motors. Originally this had a 3500 hp V16 16-645F3 engine. After conversion it had Caterpillar C175 and C18 engines totaling 4300 hp.
The C175 makes sense to put in a locomotive. That’s a monster 85 liter V16 engine. But why a C18? It’s a small 18 liter inline 6 engine that was primarily used in semi trucks.
I knew something was different. It had an old style AAR cab but also had SD70 flared radiators. The recent paint job was also a tell that this was not your typical SD40-2 being scrapped.
The accuracy of this comment won’t get recognized by those who don’t know how accurate this actually is. Gotta keep an std test with ya every time you use one
@@Comm0ut I will .. IN all honesty.. cuz I don't have a clue... what is a realistic monies ? I understand $$$ is required and desired.. and would spend.. just want to have a ball park
The SD-50 was the beginning of the end of EMD. I am honestly not all that upset seeing an SD-50 get chopped up. Prior to this EMD was the clear leader in this country as a locomotive producer, but they lost a lot of business because of it and all the problems it had. This to EMD was their version of the 737 max to Boeing.
@@MattyC62185 These PR43C rebuilds were actually far more unreliable and useless units than the GP50's & SD50's. Most GP50's & SD50's received swapped power assemblies from 645E3's which solved the problems for the most part of the 645F3's. The problem with two stroke diesel engines is that displacement needs to be increased depending on the horsepower,opposed to four stroke which can produce more and at lower RPM,and this is where and what EMD failed. EMD's downfall was EPA regulations and the fact that GE was always ahead of them in terms of being technologically advanced with better traction motors,tractive effort,and dynamic braking including microprocessors and wheel slippage prevention for their units. The biggest mistake EMD created was the SD90MAC H1's & H2's. Even the SD9043MAC's were problematic involving cracked frames. CAT/PRLX resurrected the same errors with the SD70AH-T4's which made all other EMD units highly preferred instead.
Great video. I've been around railroads and locomotives my whole life. This gave some incredible views of components that are usually difficult to see because of there placement in relationship to other things. I would have loved to see a video of when the owner started removing usable parts., and when they took the axles/trucks out. I hated to see the locomotive get cut up but it was a great video.
It's interesting to note that I watched a video on RU-vid once where they said a locomotive was one of the few places you could survive a direct tornado hit because they are so big and heavy.
I first remember seeing some locomotive frames being scrapped in the 1970s @ McCook IL but they were smaller and had a lot more rust. Because of the thickness and the effort and even the cost sometimes you'll see old cranes and Earth Movers sit for years and years. Thanks for the comprehensive look at how this is done
In the UK there is a company when scrapping Locomotives cuts out the numbers on the side of the Loco's, If you want you can buy this panel for the Scrap cost Price of the metal holding the number & use the panel for your Man Cave/Garage Wall.
Worked at midwest steel and alloy youngstown oh. late 80's. Pulled battery's,prime mover,generator,air compressor,oiling rack,fuel tank 2 a day. Burning line had 4 burners cutting locomotives. Day and a half to cut 1 loco per burner,no shear track help,crawler track crane with magnet.
It only had one Diesel Engine. The EMD/GM DDA40X was the last loco with two diesel engines= 2 20V645E3A two strokes = 3300 Hp a piece.. That gave 6600 HP
It was previously a SD50. Like JR said Progress rebuilt it into a PR43C. They took out the old EMD 645 Prime Mover/Engine and replaced it with 1 Caterpillar C175 and 1 Caterpillar C18 engines. So it did have 2 diesel engines.
We did complete locomotive and tank car demo, motors and all. Was using a Volvo 380 with a claw. The electric motor and combustion engine gave us a run for our money. Close to 46k lbs each. Even with a big machine it’s very awkward to handle that weight. I’ve got picture if you’d want to see
Neat to watch! I've often wondered if the value of scrap offsets the cost of fuel with the Oxygen and Acetylene to chop it up. I know for a while there, the company I worked for was taking a loss, but they needed to get the railcars cut up or pay taxes on them. Taxes on scrap metal versus whole cars is a whole lot less, even if they are derailed, beyond repair and off their wheels...
I would imagine that some of those sections were really pushing the limits of that Grove crane! I think that’s a 50 ton unit, but when you look at how incredibly heavy a locomotive is built, you see that it doesn’t take long to get super heavy!
Good job. I just ran across your channel. Very interesting how heavy those things are built. no wonder they last so long. I'll check out some of your other stuff.
Have people asked you if you could save stuff like horns number boards and cab controls and whatnot? You'd be surprised at how many rail enthusiasts would pay good money to get that stuff
The PR43C's made the SD50's look like a rookie mistake with all the mechanical malfunctions the units presented. There's a reason why only about a dozen were even completed and the program was scrapped...The units were junk. At least with the SD50's,most times swapping power assemblies or changing governor settings solved the reliability issues. Just like with derating the horsepower on the SD45's,SD45-2's,SD45T-2's,or SD45M's in order to avoid crankshaft failures and stress.
don't worry, these things were horribly unreliable, lost the railroads tons of money and were an overall failure.. scrapping this model of locomotive is the best you can do with it.
Nothing to cry about...It was a unreliable SD50 for most of it's time and then was a short lived EPA rebuild as a PR43C which was even more junk in my opinion.
Number 2 fuel, when properly atomized will burn quite easily and that’s what I meant by decommissioning. The vapors could flash. The temperature of a cutting torch is well above the flash point of diesel fuel.
@JTTTTx I've been working on diesel trucks for a long time, I've cut and welded on tanks when they still had fuel in them, just use proper safety precautions and there won't be any problems. You aren't gonna atomize fuel that's sitting in a tank without pressure through a small orifice like an oil burner on a furnace. Get a gallon of diesel fuel and throw sparks in it till it lights, I'm willing to bet you will be there forever, even if you were to get the residual fuel to catch its not going to case any issues.
I agree with you about the atomization, I am in the heating industry. I only mention it because it can on rare occasions cause a problem. In my state, those tanks couldn’t be transferred or transported without being properly cleaned and certified by an agency. DEP rules etc. We did have a case where a couple of guys were removing a pipe bushing with heat and it did “ cause a problem “.
Hopefully you got it for a good unprepared price and the #1 copper is the gravy. Sometimes cast aluminium in the fans. I'm in the same business at a shredder yard.
This was cool to come across my feed - subscribed! I'm pretty curious what the total weight of the whole thing was, would you be able to do a breakdown video or something? I'd love to know what scrapping is like as far as the costs of the gas for the torches, crew, crane service, trucking etc. and how much that eats into the scrap payout (if it's something you're comfortable sharing with the world)
I hate this. I understand that everything can't be preserved and someone has to do it and that it must be done but it still hurts to see it destroyed. It's like loosing history.
I can't imagine how to go about being able to do, in the sense of I never knew train companies allowed "private individuals" scrap their stuff. I figured something like this stayed in house. Wonder how much insurance is required to be out there and how often this happens
Just Union Pacific alone has over 8,000 locomotives and there is 100's of them sitting in scrap yards throughout the US plus 1000's more from the other 3 class 1 railroads and defunct railroads.
