What would you do with a 130 ton locomotive?

> Locomotive engine must be disabled per a state grant funding agreement.

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.

These will absolutely be bought by a smaller freight rail company even if for spare parts. The requirement to disable the engine is wasteful.

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.

At 130 tons it seems like the only reasonable way to actually take possession is to transport it by rail (not self-powered, but presumably it's still mobile). But even then... it's still on a rail. Move it to a defunct spur where it can probably be dragged the last leg even if the rail is in poor shape?

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.

Sounds like a diesel-electric locomotive, right? If only the diesel engine is irreversibly damaged, it would still make a very good electric locomotive; easiest to convert for 750 DC third rail/1.5/3kV DC overhead, but with modern power electronics all options are possible (also 25kV AC overhead power). You just need some new circuitry, either modern, IGBT transistor-based, or old-school resistive DC one, possibly re-using most of the circuitry powering it from the original diesel-moved generator. Would be nice to own one :)

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 doesn't make a good cafe. You'd want a car with big windows at least. A Caltrain passenger car might work, but even then, kind of iffy.

A locomotive might be nice in a museum or as an art piece at a playground, or for scrap value.

With enough land and disposable income you could build a 1:1 scale model railroad.

If disabling the engine weren't a requirement, my first thought would be to donate it to a local non-profit that, for some reason, owns a large WWII era tug boat. Its original steam engine was removed, so it's without propulsion. A locomotive engine might be just the thing for it, though I imagine the engineering challenges might be complex.

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.

There's actually numerous small regional freight railways, again. They're hungry for gear and bodging together all sorts of antiques to make stuff run, I gather.

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.

That's an EMD (division of General Motors) F40PH diesel-electric locomotive, not a gasoline locomotive. Gasoline locomotive did exist, but they were much smaller and usually served in mines or industrial railways.

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).

A Locomotive without the... locomotive is pretty useless beyond spare parts. Seems really wasteful and political to push this agenda. It would make a great emergency generator in the SE right now...

Dig a large pit, then drive the train into it. Post the results to YouTube.

Crash into a nuclear waste container, of course https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/operation-smash-hit/

Drag it out into the country somehow and shoot guns at it. Everybody needs a shootin’ car, and this is even better.

Fit a new emissions compliant engine inside it and refit the insides with modern control hardware.

Playgrounds. To instill an early desire for engineers. They went electric.

I put my money on it becoming an installation at Burning Man.

Roll it downhill to create surf waves

I like how its (used)

Google The Train to Heaven Wroclaw ;)

it's a shame they demolish (disable) a working diesel engine. Such an entitled mindset.

Sell it for scrap and use the money to travel.

130 tons is a hefty millstone indeed.

It's scrap. Needs cut up as close as possible to its current location.