"More miraculous" doesn't imply "not miraculous"

How many other F40s in original, operable condition are there? (We can rule out anything about the Grand Canyon F40s as 'miraculous' in any respect, as they're retained and kept as working locomotives...)

I'll grant you it's hyperbole. But we should be celebrating something saved in good running condition, not grumping that other efforts did more.

The miracle is not so much the physical fact but that Chris pulled it off and at a young age. Others talk; he did. And he got the precise unit he wanted.

The one at the California State Railroad Museum (281), runs.

I was watching a video of Amtrak trains and saw that F40 car body #90406 (nee-#406) is still in service as a cab control car on the Downeaster. It was internally gutted to be part of the Amtrak 40th Anniversary display train, and is still wearing the lettering for that anniversary, in fairly well-cared for Phase III livery, with ditch lights being the only obvious change from it's as-delivered appearance in 1986 as part of the last group of 10 bought by Amtrak. I'm sure Amtrak intends to keep using it for the time being, but some group should probably make it known they are interested in having it when the time comes for it to be retired. It would be a decent museum piece for a museum that does not operate equipment, like say Strasburg, which already has several Amtrak pieces in their collection, including an E60 and AEM7. This would complete their collection for that era (at least for what still exists).

Meanwhile in Massachusetts:

Two of Larry's F40PHs were headed west on BNSF through Illinois on Tuesday. GCRR? John Andrew photos. Edit: As noted below, these photos are actually from two years ago, they actually did arrive at Williams.

Still two or three SDP40F's in Pueblo, Paul. So it still wouldn't be quite a complete collection of extant early Amtrak motive power.

Pretty darn sure they're not going there, or I would have heard about it by now. Notes dropped to the shop have gone unanswered, though.

UPDATE: The "horse's mouth" at the GCRY wasted quite a bit of time this morning trying to log in here, failed, and gave up.

But he reminded me that those locos arrived at Williams OVER TWO YEARS AGO:

https://www.facebook.com/10006445861893 ... 433152037/

I apologize, you know what happens when you ASSume. The photos were posted, undated, on an Illinois railroad history closed facebook group that does post news items. I do vaguely remember this event, but don't recall if they were returned to service or used for parts.

I was told by an organization that owns a Amtrak F40PH that they plan to donate it to a museum, apparently that information was not supposed to be made public so what F40PH is going where we'll have to be for people who didn't see my original post to speculate on. Unfortunately a few units it would have made good candidates for preservation were very heavily modified to be made into lease units.

"RSS purchased a small fleet of former Amtrak F40PH locomotives (12 in total) and has been rebuilding them at Metro East Industries in East St. Louis, Ill." https://railfan.com/new-f40-lease-fleet ... e-on-mbta/

Edit: Here https://www.railwayage.com/mechanical/l ... ew-tricks/ it says that they have been heavily modified, with a Tier 0+ prime mover, an auxiliary diesel for the HEP, an extended cowl, and desktop controls.

https://railfan.com/amtrak-f40-donated- ... da-museum/

"An Amtrak F40PH, or at least what remains of it, has been donated to the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City, south of Las Vegas. Amtrak 315 was donated by its previous owner, Western Rail near Spokane, Wash., to the museum in March. The locomotive, which no longer has a prime mover, will be moved to Nevada in the coming months."