MRL locos heading to the scrapper

[Pilawt]

An MRL GP9 and two SD40s are nearing Portland Union Station southbound on June 4 as they are being led away to be scrapped.

 

[ciron28]

I had the 200 and 215 while on working on the I & M Raillink. They won't be missed. Most all of that power the IMRL had was junk.

Travis

 

[RoadRailer]

Looks like the UP is splitting up the 17-loco funeral train MRL sent to Portland back in May, in order to deliver them to Schnitzer.
The 215/200/125 were the 6-4th units in the consist behind the 225/602/218(3-1).
The remaining locomotives included #s 111/214/114/211/606/204/126/307/604/306/309(17-7th)

Here are some pictures of the train (J-SPOPTL1-27A) as it paused in Pasco on Memorial Day:
http://raolson.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.aspx?id=68267

Back in February, MRL sent 8 SD45s to the scrapper, six of them ended up together on the PASLYD:
http://raolson.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.aspx?id=64617

 

[Pilawt]

Swan song today for MRL 114, 214, 111:

 

[mrmoose]

Atleast they went out lookin' good-no rust, patches, etc. Death with dignity.

 

[SP&SFan]

I had the 200 and 215 while on working on the I & M Raillink. They won't be missed. Most all of that power the IMRL had was junk.

Travis

As I understand from close sources in the MRL, your comment was after the IMRL ran the locomotives to the ground and failed to compensate the MRL properly for usage..


SP&SFan

 

[Jon Bentz]

So, were these surplus units? Is MRL purchasing new power to replace these?

 

[steam4449]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1HyMjrR7LU A little video my buddies and I made about this incident.

 

[CSX 700]

So, were these surplus units? Is MRL purchasing new power to replace these?

they were just surplus, no additional new power is coming. For a long time MRL maintained a large roster for the purpose of leasing out extra power, around 40-50 units total. A lot of those SD40/40-2 and SD45/45-2 and F45's spent a good deal of time in lease service on BNSF though there were other operators as well. The lease market just isn't the same as it was 5 years ago and there are plenty of SD40-2's out there awaiting a call to service should there be a need.

Bryan Jones
Brooks,KY

 

[Empire Builder]

they were just surplus, no additional new power is coming. For a long time MRL maintained a large roster for the purpose of leasing out extra power, around 40-50 units total. A lot of those SD40/40-2 and SD45/45-2 and F45's spent a good deal of time in lease service on BNSF though there were other operators as well. The lease market just isn't the same as it was 5 years ago and there are plenty of SD40-2's out there awaiting a call to service should there be a need.

Bryan Jones
Brooks,KY

that, & there's still ripples going though their fleet from the new SD70ACe's they purchased several years ago. What used to require 2 old locos can now be accomplished with one ACe- MRL's famous help sets on Bozeman & Mullan Passes that often times consited of 6 or more SD40/45's, & sometimes even requiring mid-train & end-of-train helper sets, can now be replaced with one helper set consiting of 3 or 4 ACe's.

As much as I love their new ACe's, it does hurt seeing those SD45-series locos that used to rule Montana rails get towed off to the scrap yard.

 

[ciron28]

As I understand from close sources in the MRL, your comment was after the IMRL ran the locomotives to the ground and failed to compensate the MRL properly for usage..


SP&SFan

I started on the IMRL about a year after start up. Those locos were still failing all the time when I was there. Most all of the short term MRL locos the IMRL had were also junk. The SD40-2XR's and the SD45 and SD45-2. The IMRL had to return most of the short term leasors for other locos within weeks of receiving them, because they had probems with them. It had nothing to do with the IMRL running them into the ground. It hard to run any locos into the ground when they already were before the IMRL had them. Some of the long term leasors were good units, but most were junk. You really can't run a railroad with junk power. That is one of the reasons the IMRL failed among many other reasons I won't go into.

The IMRL was just a sister company of the Washington company. Do you know why Dennis Washington had to give up the IMRL? Because he quit paying on his loan to the Bank of Montreal. They found another company to take over and pay. That being the DME or known as the IC&E Railroad.

Travis

 

[Robert Gift]

I had the 200 and 215 while on working on the I & M Raillink. They won't be missed. Most all of that power the IMRL had was junk.
Travis

Why do you say that?
What were the problems?

 

[Ragnar]

3/6/12

Are these MRL units still sitting at Schnitzer steel? Can someone from PDX provide an update?

 

[Tacoma Tom]

I used to work on MRL locomotives as a mechanic and they seemed to be in pretty good condition to me. We even did complete engine overhauls including welding up the saddles and giving the crank a new line bore. You really can't do much better than that unless you buy a brand new motor.

Always frustrating and sad to do months of hard work on those locomotives and watch them going to the scrapper.