800

THE OLDEST ROAD UNITS - THE 800'S

Here is a February 2025 snapshot of the active 800's road numbers still at Amtrak. They are both the oldest and the newest of the Genesis series. Built as "P40's" in 1993 but later 15 chosen for rebuild as "P42's" in 2011. Actually the 500 series of GE's were used as road power before being mostly retired to yard duties. We'll talk more about them elsewhere. It appears that #816 may be a total loss after a truck strike and derailment on Train 6 in Weld County, Colorado in January 2024.

GE built 44 P40's (road numbers 800-843) in 1993. Three were destroyed and scrapped relatively early, 817 at Bayou Canot, and two at Bourbonnais, Illinois in 1999 (807 &829). All but the 15 restorations were eventually sold off to Larry's Truck and Electric. Still at Amtrak are a few of the Bush II rebuilds in late 2024, as noted below. Evidently four are still available and active in February 2025.

Beech Grove rebuilt several of the earlier P40's that were sold off and ended up at Connecticut DOT (with several passing first through New Jersey Transit). They were supposed to have been done by 2000, but that was delayed a couple of years by covid. The last one was shipped back to Connecticut in 2024. Those not rebuilt by Amtrak have been sold off, and their future is unknown (four have been rebuilt by LTE for Kewatin Railway in Alberta). One supposedly sold for parts, #800, remained at Beech Grove in 2024. Verified also at Beech Grove in March 2023 were 809 822(40th anniversary paint) and 823. Also there is reportedly 818, which was a trailing unit in a farm equipment accident in Montana (behind #9).

Remaining 800 road number movements today are mostly AutoTrain, where they have always been preferred for their analog braking characteristics. In 2024 there was talk of replacing them with Siemen's ALC-42 Chargers. Indeed, in September, 2024 #357 became the first Siemens Long Distance Charger to to into service there. Autotrain is Amtrak's only route where autocarriers are used, and freight style braking is helpful. In November, one Auto Train set was fully equipped with Chargers, the first time this has happened.

The AutoTrain was originally a private service that had two routes to Florida in the 1970's. After derailments of the Chicago service due to poor track maintenance of that time period, that private company went bankrupt and Amtrak ultimately absorbed its equipment assets. There were only three of the remaining ten that still roamed in early 2024 (816 817 and 824). Wrecked in Colorado was #816. The last roamer is #824. The remaining few P40's are getting hard to find in daylight, since the Autotrain mostly operates at night. They are Amtrak's oldest Genesis locomotives, but also the newest, since they were totally rebuilt twelve years ago with George W. Bush economic stimulus funding (but not actually completed until well into the Obama administration).

HERE ARE THE REMAINING ACTIVE P40S AT AMTRAK

FLORIDA AUTO TRAIN SERVICE UNITS - 2 ACTIVE FEBRUARY 2025

814 Autotrain NOL-CHI T58 Oct28-29(w/170 Leading). Moved to Beech Grove, nose cone missing. Forecast unknown.
815 Moved to Beech Grove Jun4/5 2024 (w/87Ld). Not active.
817 AutoTrain Train October active with 830. Had been a roamer earlier in 2024.
821 Autotrain October 4, 2024 damaged with 832 near Dillon SC. Running paired with a Charger January 26, 2025.
830 Autotrain active November, 2024 with 835.
831 Shopped at Lorton, August-September 2024. T29Sep13/14(w/40Ld). No recent report. Inactive.
832 Autotrain Damaged train 53 of October 4 with 821 near Dillon SC.
835 AutoTrain active December 2024 with 837.
837 Autotrain ACTIVE January 2025 paired with Charger January 26, 2025.

ROAMERS (NON-AUTOTRAIN) - 1 ACTIVE JANUARY 2025

816 (Serial 47284-July 1993). Train 5 January 22/24(w/41Tr). Derailed and flipped on its side January 29, 2024, tanker truck incident Weld County, Colorado on train 6 (w/41 trailing).

824 (Serial 47292-September 1993). Sunset Limited train 1 September 9-11 with 75 Leading. Still active in October, on train 1-23 with #142 leading. Evidently the last roamer. Not seen in November. Train 5 December 7 as third unit. Train 5 December 13 as 4th unit. Running California Zephyr in January 2025 as trailing unit, then to Borealis.

The former Amtrak 843 was rebuilt at Beech Grove for Connecticut in 2023. Now numbered CTDX 6707, it moved Beech Grove to Chicago on March 20(w/817) and then on train 48 (w/114+136). On June 7, 2023, CDTX 6702 also moved from Beech Grove to Indianapolis, and on train 48/448 into Boston with Amtrak 120 and 101. These were supposed to have been overhauled/rebuilt in 2020, but were delayed by COVID and other issues. As of the end of 2023, the most recent was #6700 that shipped out of Beech Grove on December 11, 2023.

January 5/7, 2024 #816 led a California Zephyr bringing new Chargers #350 and #351 to Chicago. Behind #816 was a P42, #54, making for a fairly interesting lashup. Over the MLK weekend, #824 was working Virginia regionals. It remained there, off and on, through late April.

On January 14, #835 came out of Chicago on the Capitol Limited. Our first sighting in a while. It eventually moved back to Autotrain. In February, several more new Chargers were released for service south of Washington DC on Silver Star, Silver Meteor, and Crescent. Moving to Beech Grove on the 25th for a few days was #817. It returned to Chicago on March 11.

In June, evidently #817 and #824 were the last roamers still operating in revenue service. Of the Autotrain units #814 had not been reported in over sixty days and may be stored in New Orleans. Engine #179 was added to Autotrain for a while in March and continued operating into May. This was the first time in a while that a P42 has run consistently on the Auto Train. What it signified, if anything, we do not know at this point, but in May #39 and #150 were also operating for much of the month on Auto Train.

In March 2024, #830 had moved off of the Autotrain to Chicago and back, but this was temporary. Likewise, #837 took a turn to go to Chicago and more recently #815. Wreck victim #146 led #831 on train 52 of March 25-26, which was another interesting move. It also stayed on and off the Autotrain for most of April and May. During the summer, #150 and #179 have also taken turns on AT. Chargers were said to be getting considered for eventual Auto Train service, and indeed began running paired with a single P40 in September and October 2024.

Engine 835 has an illegible number board.

In September 2004, #831 moved from Lorton to Chicago. In late October #814 moved out of New Orleans and went to Chicago. It was sighted with the nose cone missing. It then moved to Beech Grove.

Reported rebuilt for Keewatin Railway have been former 801 (now KRC2506), 802 (2507), 803 (KRC 2508), 839 (KRC2509). Rebuilt privately, not by Amtrak shop.

In December 2024, #821 briefly rejoined one of the Auto Train sets, and continued there off and on through January 2025.

February 1, 2025 Update from 4rr.com