Hello! I produce yearly train calendars and want to verify info for C40-8 Standard Cab locomotives! I need to know the totals purchased each by Union Pacific and Chicago & North Western! I have researched and found few different numbers. First I see "460" for UP. I don't want info for the Widecabs. Then "255" which seems right, though I saw "256" and "257." For CNW I have "77" but I also saw 76. I want the verification source included! Thank You!
Robert Jackson
You might want to check http://utahrails.net/ It might also help with your SP questions.
Looking at Don Strack's site, it's 77 for C&NW (All of which survived to the UP acquisition) and 256 bought new by Union Pacific.
The Union Pacific total though comes along with an asterix. A 257th unit was bought but never delivered. GE needed a modern high horsepower example of their current product for testing and arranged to retain the unit (The #9185), eventually replacing it with another C40-8 with the same number.
I suspect what's behind the 255 unit total for UP comes as a result of this oddity. People see 256 units for a total for UP C40-8's such as at Don Strack's roster and then see the information about this testbed, and mistakenly subtract it thinking that the true total is 255 units rostered. I know I was guilty of this moments ago until I decided to double check with the rosters that CSSHEGEWISCH helpfully linked you to.
Yet it's actually already been accounted for with the 256 unit total. The 9100-9355 number block on UP (With no number gaps for this model) represents a group of 256 units in total. The undelivered original #9185 then makes for 257 units held on the UP books at one time for bought new C40-8's.
Some of these units were later sold to Canadian National, which continues to operate them, but our Dash-8 fleet is on its last legs these days, and some have already been sold for scrap.
The ex-Northwestern units pull noticeably better as they are heavier, and some are equipped with DP.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
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