SAGINAW, Mich. — Lake State Railway Co., the Michigan regional railroad, today announced that it is purchasing four SD70ACe-T4 locomotives from Progress Rail.
LSRC received an emissions grant to replace five older locomotives with four newer Tier 4 locomotives. The railroad says it chose the SD70ACe-T4 built by EMD successor Progress Rail due to several factors, including delivery timing, parts commonality, and after sale support.
Locomotives being retired include four SD50-3 locomotives and an SD40-2, all of which are over 40 years old. LSRC’s 32-locomotive roster is all-EMD and includes MP15, GP38, GP40, SD40, SD50, and SD70 variants.
With the new locomotives, the LSRC locomotive fleet will be one of the newest rostered by a shortline or regional railroad and the SD70 model type will represent 40% of the fleet. The locomotives will be numbered LSRC No. 6451 through No. 6454 and are former demonstrator units which have been thoroughly reconditioned and updated. The locomotives are expected to be delivered by the end of 2025.
LSRC Chief Mechanical Officer Roger Fuehring noted the support offered by Progress Rail helped make the decision on which locomotive vendor to use.
“I have managed several projects in my career which upgraded locomotive fleets for better emissions, and I feel very comfortable we will be receiving a great product,” Fuehring said in a statement. “We especially value the support Progress Rail has offered after the sale, which is critical given how much more complex these locomotives are compared to the older generation locomotives.”
LSRC CEO Mike Stickel says the new units will support traffic growth on the 375-mile regional, which handles about 60,000 carloads per year. “The new locomotives will be helpful as our train sizes and carload volumes continue to grow. These are not only the first Tier 4 locomotives on our railroad, they are also the first AC-traction locomotives,” he said.
LSRC maintains its fleet in a modern shop in Saginaw.
— To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
What happened to the trade ins, did they fine new homes?
LSRC Wixom to Saginaw (ex CSX trackage) about 53 miles does not have any grades either way over .40, per Chessie track charts circa 1980, while the NYC/PC line from Standish to Gaylord should not have any grades over 1% mostly around West Branch and Gaylord.
LSRC’s SD70s are 24 years old; how much parts commonality is there, actually, between a 2001 SD70M and 2015 SD70ACe-T4? We know the engines, traction motors, trucks, and cooling systems are completely different; I’m not sure what else that leaves that would be meaningful in this context.
Aside from Union Pacific, none of the Class I railroads have bought and kept SD70ACe-T4s. CSX and NS each took a dozen or so demo units, but were more than happy to give them back.
Nice looking engines!
First thoughts. When were these locomotives actually built? New construction or ones from their lease fleet. Have all the reliability challenges in the 4-cycle engine been resolved? Hope they got a a really good financial deal. And last, how long ago was the last T-4 purchase.?
I have to assume there was a sizable price discount. The locos are big and showy for a short line, even one that seems successful and has long hauls in bad weather.
Roger: The article states that these were former demonstrators, and purchased directly from Progress Rail. I would assume that they were in the lease fleet. T4 took effect in 2015, and as I recall Progress had trouble meeting it, so I would guess these engines were built around 2015.
Charles: Given that the line already rosters other SD70’s, I would assume that they really do need the big power. My question would be: Does the line have any areas with significant grades, where they need extra power regardless of the load? I’m thinking of Tacoma Rail, which formerly rostered SD70’s specifically to bring trains up the “Gulch Line” from Tacoma to Frederickson, a line which had very steep grades (I think 3%+). The trains going up that line weren’t that long given the power they used, and sometimes they still had to double the hill. Once that line was sold/mothballed, the SD70’s went away.
DANIEL —- Can’t say I know the entire Lake States route but I’ve seen large parts of the lower mitten at one time or another. Then I’d have to remember where Lake States goes, from the article in TRAINS a couple of years back.
I guess any railroad anywhere can have a ruling grade. If memory serves (I may be mistaken), Lake States includes the ex- Michigan Central line, up the middle of the fingers portion of the lower mitten. The I-75 Freeway gets a little hilly north of the MBS Tri-Cities (Midland, Bay City, Saginaw) going up toward Grayling, so I would assume so does the railroad.
Anything south of MBS is mostly flat but no state is entirely flat, not even southern lower Michigan.
Ex – D&M on along the Lake Huron shoreline, MBS to Pinconning to Tawas to Alpena to Cheboygan, which I believe is also Lake States, should be relatively flat but not table-top flat.
What are the details of the “emissions grant”? How much and who pays?