NEW YORK — MTA Metro-North Railroad has approved a $7.9 million contract to overhaul six 3,000-horsepower F40 locomotives in use on its West of Hudson service. The overhaul will include new, larger fuel tanks for more efficient operations.
This overhaul program will help improve train operations and provide more reliable service for Port Jervis and Pascack Valley line customers, officials said.
Metro-North’s West of Hudson locomotive fleet consists of 15 engines, eight F40s and seven GP40s. The seven GP40s were overhauled by Motive Power of Boise, Idaho between 2006 and July 2008 at a cost of $8.1 million.
The current project by Progress Rail Services of East Chicago, Indiana, is to replace the 1,800 gallon fuel tanks with 2,500 gallon tanks to reduce the amount of time that they need to be out of service for fueling at NJTRANSIT’s Hoboken facility.
In addition to the fuel tanks, the locomotives will be overhauled proactively to ensure future reliability including rebuilt main engines, main and auxiliary generators, and new “hotel” power generator sets, for lights, heat and air conditioning aboard.
Planned engine modifications will meet the January 2010 EPA emission requirements for newly remanufactured engines meaning this engine’s exhaust will have lower particulate and nitrogen oxide emissions.
The six locomotives will be towed to PRS’s facility in Mayfield, Kentucky where the work will be done. Completion is set for December 2011. The contract has a $2.6 million option to overhaul the two remaining F40 locomotives by June 2012. This option will be exercised should funding become available.
