According to the website, the engine is disabled and you have to pick them up yourself.
I was wondering what you colud do with one of those beasts and why they are selling them. What would you buy one for? A fancy restaurant / cafe perhaps? This of course supposing that the pavement could handle such weight.
What a dumb requirement. It's like the cash-for-clunkers program requiring the engines to be destroyed.
The service life of a locomotive is effectively infinite - even after their useful freight days are done, they usually get refitted and sent to the developing world, or converted into a fixed power generator.
The whole point of the "cash-for-clunkers" program was to remove as many older, more polluting, and unsafe, cars from the market as possible, to force an upgrade of the fleet, and simultaneously provide incentives to buy new cars.
It wasn't dumb in the larger scheme, but yes... on the individual level, it made it almost impossible to get an affordable good used car for a few years.
The locomotive is now only good for scrap metal, if the engine is similarly disabled.
It was an insanely regressive cash redistribution program that punished poor people for many years after it was over. You can call that 'not dumb' but I won't.
I lack the expertise to offer a useful estimate, but I'm guessing that number is not small.
Wonder how "disabled" it has to be?
Or maybe it could be transferred to another organization that might meet the requirements of the state?
Maybe something like roaring camp railroad, or niles canyon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Camp_%26_Big_Trees_Nar...
So they don't want it to be used in CA, but are only selling it in CA. Hence the engine must be disabled.
This requirement was clearly made by someone who doesn’t know the freight rail industry at all. Freight trains are so efficient that the fuel costs are low no matter what. The biggest problem is upgrading the 1940s and 50s equipment out there to newer models since there’s little incentive. Here’s a perfect upgrade for those trains rendered useless by politicians.
Eg. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Shorthaul_Railroad still runs 75 year old diesel locomotives since the tech hasn’t changed that much. This is common in the industry. The caltrain models are positively leading edge since they are only 40years old.
Suggesting a use other than continuing as a freight car for such a young model of diesel locomotive is like putting an iPhone 16 in an ancient history museum. It’s crazy talk.
I wonder what the disabling process is. During the wasteful “cash for clunkers”, the common method was to replace the oil with a polymerizing solution and rev it until it fails, but I wonder how consistently this was actually done and how many parts can be re-used.
I also wonder what this did to the market for used engines already in inventory.
People mention old trains being used in a foreign country after leaving service in the US, but even then I assume it goes by rail to some port with excellent equipment for moving heavy things, then on a boat to a similar port, and then directly onto rail again. Besides this do trains get moved other than by rail?
Well... looking it up, I guess 40 tons is the normal max load for a truck without special permits, 10 tons per axle. While you need permits above that, my impression is that the per-axle limit is the real limit of a road, so as long as you can distribute the weight over enough axles...
I found this fairly helpful page: https://www.atsinc.com/blog/heavy-haul-trucking-cost-informa...
It gives about about $1/axle/mile (plus a bunch of fees) BUT only up to 50 tons and for loads under 13 feet in height and 50 feet in length. This is 130 tons, and probably around 16 feet tall and 70 feet long.
Anyway, seems super hard to actually make use of the vehicle, other than in a train museum. Or do a lot of disassembly before moving it off the rail.
You could DM me if you would some need help in "rewiring" it, I have some experience with railway rolling stock of all kinds.
A locomotive might be nice in a museum or as an art piece at a playground, or for scrap value.
I guess it depends on what kind of vibe you're going for. Plenty of cafes that are tiny, cramped with no windows, but still manages to be cozy and interesting.
This is a 1970’s model diesel ffs. That’s basically brand new in this industry.
The power train from a diesel-electric locomotive would probably be ideal, since you could just park it in the boiler room and run power cables to electric thrusters. Or something like that.
The private collectors of rail stock still exist, but they're getting less common.
The weight is actually easy to deal with: you put the car on a section of rail. This spreads the load over a wide area just as happens when they're in use.
Even with the engine disabled, the electric components and other parts will still be useful to the many railways still running F40 locomotives (like VIA rail in Canada).
People forget that the most important part about reducing our emissions is that we need to use the things we’re building as long as possible. These trains used immense resources to be built but now they’re going to waste!
Build less oil powered stuff, but let’s use the fuck out of the things we do build.
130 tons is a hefty millstone indeed.
Would I avoid having to deal with a 130 ton locomotive is a different question.
My comment suggests my answer to that question, I hope.
