11-05-2010, 09:03 AM
PHL has a bunch of engines. They used to have 6 or 8 Sw7s (I think they were 7's) painted in a light blue very similar to Conrail blue. They were left over from the previous owner of the line when it was the Harbor Belt Line. The line was bought by a new owner who is a railfan, and likes the classic liveries. In addition to the Sw units, they had 1 Gp9 in black widow, 1 or 2 of the Sd23 or 24 units in zebra stripe, 1 Sd40-2t in bloody nose, there was also a unit with a high short hood in a bright red and black scheme from an East Coast road.
I just looked on the So Cal Railfan Forums board, but all of the attached thumb nails have been removed from the posts. I looked up Chris Walker's photo gallery on the site, but all he has up now is pics of U.P.
There was a post that I made asking about PHL #60 because I was expecting everything to look like Gen Sets, but #60 looks kind of like an Sd40-2 with the long "back porch." Dave Toussaint, the owner of the So Cal Railfan Forums board had received a letter from Andrew Fox, president of PHL, concerning the new units that PHL is receiving. It was contained in the post I made which is on the second page of the shortline subforum titled "Curious about PHL #60." In the letter written early in 2007, Mr Fox, said that they were expecting to receive 16 EPA tier 2 emission-compliant units from Motive Power Inc in Boise, Idaho. 14 of the units would be 6 axle 2000 hp units, and other 2 would be 4 axle 2000 hp units. In addition they were also receiving 3 Gen Sets. So at that time the planned total would be 19 units. I don't know if they have received additional units, or not since then. The plan was to retire an old unit each time a new one was delivered. I believe the 6 axle units all look like #60 and #61. I have never seen pics of the 4 axle units. There are also pictures of one of the Gen Sets on the site. I think a reasonable model of #60 or #61 could be kit bashed from an Athearn Sd40-2. The biggest spotting difference that I see is the short nose and lack of a "front porch." I think a shorter Sd40 or Sd38 frame would probably be correct, with the front end shortened from the Sd40-2 to fit. It looks like it only has the 3 radiator fans on the back of the long hood, no other fans, and obviously no dynamic brakes, since the PHL is located only in LA Harbor, and there are no grades. They get between Los Angeles Hartbor and Long Beach Harbor by going around through Wilmington and they get onto and off of Terminal Island by a draw bridge.
I think the PHL handles mostly non-intermodal traffic. Many of the larger intermodal terminals have tracks right on the terminal and load out containers right off of the ships, and receive containers to go to the ships directly off the rails. Those terminals that don't have rail connections on terminal, truck the containers to the LCTF rail yard adjacent to the U.P. Delores Yard yard in Wilmington.
I think PHL regularly washes their locomotives, and all of them were replace since 2007 presuming that they received the entire order by now. They don't go through any tunnels, and they probably don't run much faster than the LAJ because they snake around the harbor and through blind curves between container yards and buidings with limited visibility. I suspect that at the low speeds they operate, they don't kick up a lot of dust. I don't know how to post links in Firefox, so I will go to internet Explorer and post links to the pics that I have found to this post using the edit button.
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I just looked on the So Cal Railfan Forums board, but all of the attached thumb nails have been removed from the posts. I looked up Chris Walker's photo gallery on the site, but all he has up now is pics of U.P.
There was a post that I made asking about PHL #60 because I was expecting everything to look like Gen Sets, but #60 looks kind of like an Sd40-2 with the long "back porch." Dave Toussaint, the owner of the So Cal Railfan Forums board had received a letter from Andrew Fox, president of PHL, concerning the new units that PHL is receiving. It was contained in the post I made which is on the second page of the shortline subforum titled "Curious about PHL #60." In the letter written early in 2007, Mr Fox, said that they were expecting to receive 16 EPA tier 2 emission-compliant units from Motive Power Inc in Boise, Idaho. 14 of the units would be 6 axle 2000 hp units, and other 2 would be 4 axle 2000 hp units. In addition they were also receiving 3 Gen Sets. So at that time the planned total would be 19 units. I don't know if they have received additional units, or not since then. The plan was to retire an old unit each time a new one was delivered. I believe the 6 axle units all look like #60 and #61. I have never seen pics of the 4 axle units. There are also pictures of one of the Gen Sets on the site. I think a reasonable model of #60 or #61 could be kit bashed from an Athearn Sd40-2. The biggest spotting difference that I see is the short nose and lack of a "front porch." I think a shorter Sd40 or Sd38 frame would probably be correct, with the front end shortened from the Sd40-2 to fit. It looks like it only has the 3 radiator fans on the back of the long hood, no other fans, and obviously no dynamic brakes, since the PHL is located only in LA Harbor, and there are no grades. They get between Los Angeles Hartbor and Long Beach Harbor by going around through Wilmington and they get onto and off of Terminal Island by a draw bridge.
I think the PHL handles mostly non-intermodal traffic. Many of the larger intermodal terminals have tracks right on the terminal and load out containers right off of the ships, and receive containers to go to the ships directly off the rails. Those terminals that don't have rail connections on terminal, truck the containers to the LCTF rail yard adjacent to the U.P. Delores Yard yard in Wilmington.
I think PHL regularly washes their locomotives, and all of them were replace since 2007 presuming that they received the entire order by now. They don't go through any tunnels, and they probably don't run much faster than the LAJ because they snake around the harbor and through blind curves between container yards and buidings with limited visibility. I suspect that at the low speeds they operate, they don't kick up a lot of dust. I don't know how to post links in Firefox, so I will go to internet Explorer and post links to the pics that I have found to this post using the edit button.
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