Passenger units demoted to freight

[acyunczyk]

Hello,
I would like to start a discussion about passenger units demoted to freight service. Here's what I found:
BN SDP45

Erie-Lackawanna E8s (Later passed to Conrail)

N&W J Class

NJT F40PH-2CAT

Amtrak SDP40Fs (ATSF SDF40-2s)

If anyone has any others, feel free to post here.

 

[bnsfc]

I feel like ATSF was the king of doing this.

 

[whitepass]

Just about every railroad did that.

 

[acyunczyk]

Didn't that happen a lot with steam locomotives? BTW, that J class is 611.

 

[JCitron]

Didn't that happen a lot with steam locomotives? BTW, that J class is 611.

It sure did. The NYC took their beautiful Niagras once used for fast passenger service and put them on the freights. I'm sure this happened on other railroads as well.

 

[acyunczyk]

Pennsy took the passenger K4s and put them in freight. Santa Fe's 2900s wound up on reefer blocks. The last use of 2900s was as helpers between Belen and Mountainair, NM on eastbound freights.

 

[acyunczyk]

Some rapid-transit lines and subways used older cars for work cars.
Chicago Transit Authority:

New York Subway:

 

[UnumProvident155]

Southern 4501 was mainly a freight engine during her career and was not painted green until the mid 60s

 

[rjhowie]

I think you folk in America are very unfortunate when it comes to passenger rail altogether. I know, I know, you are much bigger than my country here in Britain but there are other large places with a goodly passenger side. The decline from the old days has taken much root in model rail and I think simulators like ours. Here Trainz passenger building is the main thrust as it reflects the natural world. We are also fortunate in the many railway preservation societies and they are of course passenger based. When one looks back long years ago in the US we could say things are a pale shadow of once was. Many years ago one a second holiday over there I can recall coming back from a city by rail and on the way through a large city with a large station there were a cluster of platforms just redundant and it made me feel sad.

 

[fourteen]

The rock put a lot of there E units into freight service also the last few years they where around.

 

[acyunczyk]

I think you folk in America are very unfortunate when it comes to passenger rail altogether. I know, I know, you are much bigger than my country here in Britain but there are other large places with a goodly passenger side. The decline from the old days has taken much root in model rail and I think simulators like ours. Here Trainz passenger building is the main thrust as it reflects the natural world. We are also fortunate in the many railway preservation societies and they are of course passenger based. When one looks back long years ago in the US we could say things are a pale shadow of once was. Many years ago one a second holiday over there I can recall coming back from a city by rail and on the way through a large city with a large station there were a cluster of platforms just redundant and it made me feel sad.

What city was that?

 

[PerRock]

Pick almost any large city served by Amtrak with a historic station in it & isn't a Hub.
Buffalo, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Denver (was), St Louis (was), to name a few.

peter

 

[rjhowie]

Sorry fir delay acyunczyk.

Back in the 1980's and i think it was coming into Philadelphia from New York. looked sad and long disused.

 

[acyunczyk]

Deferred maintenance. Looking at you, Penn Central.

 

[Blutorse4792]

The writing was on the wall for the future of the American passenger train in 1968, when the Milwaukee Road acquired their fleet of five EMD FP45s with the express purpose of "demoting" them to freight service in the then-near future. If I recall correctly, they did not even have cab signaling or dynamic braking equipment installed, and thus could not lead passenger trains out of Chicago for the 2-3 years they were utilized in that service.