The russians that came

[da_kraut]

Hello everybody, just wondering about these units that were in TRAINS magazine in the July issue of 1993.  They are 11 russian made TEM7A's that produce 2000 hp and are powered by V12 engines and featureD-D trucks.  A google search came up with a few sites, here is one of them:

http://www.trainweb.org/southwestshorts/russian.html

Does anybody know what has become of them?

Thanks 

Frank 

[snagletooth]

 I believe they toured some shortlines /regionals and returned. something about parts availability.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I don't think that they ever got out of Houston.  They were impounded by the Customs Service almost immediately and I don't believe that those issues ever got cleared up.  At any rate, they were probably too light for North American service. 

[PBenham]

They were not too light, per say. The problem was that they didn't meet collision worthiness standards. The owner(s) chose not to do the necessary work on them as the return on their investment just wasn't there. It would have put a scare into GE and EMD, just like Krauss-Maffei did in 1961-3 when they imported diesel-hydraulic units for D&RGW and SP.

[Anonymous]

I don't think that they ever got out of Houston.  They were impounded by the Customs Service almost immediately and I don't believe that those issues ever got cleared up.  At any rate, they were probably too light for North American service. 

They did clear customs....10 yrs later. As a result they were in very poor condition and thus unwanted.

[BNSF_GP60M]

Funny. A website that lists them for sale states that their in perfect condition with zero hours on the engine. But who would want a eight axle swither? In my opinion I think that these units should be scrapped because no one will want these.

[TexasTraction]

They were parked on the east side of Houston near some large iron works.  I was lucky one day to talk to the caretaker there(1 unit was even reprinted solid red) and got some slides of them. They didn't handle the rough climate too well paint-wise. My understanding was they had been brought over as a payment for an export grain shipment. The rest has been detailed by other posters. I heard they were returned to Russia, but I can't verify that.

[thomas81z]

TexasTraction

They were parked on the east side of Houston near some large iron works.  I was lucky one day to talk to the caretaker there(1 unit was even reprinted solid red) and got some slides of them. They didn't handle the rough climate too well paint-wise. My understanding was they had been brought over as a payment for an export grain shipment. The rest has been detailed by other posters. I heard they were returned to Russia, but I can't verify that.

it didnt happen without pics seriously , does anyone have pics of these beasts ??

[Overmod]

They were sent back to Russia in the early 2000s.

Four were initially purchased, by 2001.  It appears that another 2 were shipped between then and Jan 2003 (when only five were observed).  All of them were supposedly through St. Petersburg by early September 2003.

There is a discussion of these TEM7a locomotives in the Russian online magazine 'SEMAFOR'.  Unfortunately for me, the downloadable .pdfs of the articles are only available in Russian.

RME

[TexasTraction]

I have posted some of my slides on rrphotoarchives.net

[Anonymous]

We had considerable discussion on Russian locomotives in this thread:

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/211583.aspx?sort=ASC&pi332=1

Some of it relates to the Russian locomotives that were stored in Texas.

[vsmith]

In Russia they were probably repainted, fueled, oiled and sent back into service

[Dutchrailnut]

here are pictures of these units in Houston

http://www.pbase.com/lynnh/russian_tem7a_engines

[M636C]

vsmith

That's a Swedish Commuter train....

Just behind the cab door on the frame are letters "SJ" (for State Railways in Swedish)....

M636C