Interesting SD70Ace

Most likely sold the engine to a leasing company. I think PRLX stands for progress rail leasing. 

Dave

Been there, done it.

Leasing company

As much as I like the SD70ACe, this looks like something that would be nice to add to my stable.

Nice locomotive- it needs some weathering to really make it pop-- would look fantastic to match your pic

Oh no! Not 4843!

All CSX SD70ACes were sold to PRLX and are primarily being leased to NS. For a week or two, one of them got a nice C&O graffiti job adding a heritage unit tothe NS fleet

Will Ebbert posted:

All CSX SD70ACes were sold to PRLX and are primarily being leased to NS. ….

That's an interesting story on it's own. I never knew that CSX didn't like them, and that they were mostly the early demonstrator units. I thought CSX had ordered heavy versions of them and they performed well. I guess they were rough and noisy?

A&M railroad in Springdale Arkansas  has some of the ex CSX engines that they are painting over the CSX and added the PRLX to them.  I think these are GE AC units.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have seen a few CSX GE units as well but again in the CN yard here in Sioux City.

Dick

CSX got the first production ACes and apparently never heard the conventional wisdom about not buying the first model year of a car. They were plagued with issues and even though they tested some improved units in 2012 never hmight any more di they only owned 16 (I think that's the number). Since their tragic numbers have been down for a while, they sold them and several older GE units to various leasing companies so NS can use them since they're doing well. 

CBQer posted:

Over the last couple of weeks, I have seen a few CSX GE units as well but again in the CN yard here in Sioux City.

Dick

Same here.  Lots of ex-CSX leased power on the power starved CN mainline lately. All GE though. CSX has definitely been "thinning the herd".  I was surprised about the SD70ACe though. Above post makes sense.

@L & N posted:

Been there, done it.

Could you go into more detail on how you did that? I'm interested in doing something similar but I don't wanna mess up with the paint

@CBQer posted:

Saw a CSX SD70Ace #4831 today in the Sioux City yard of the CN. Only the CSX was blocked out on the sides with PRLX painted in white over the black covering the logo. Is CSX dumping the SD70Aces?

I could see this as a pretty simple modelling projest.

Dick

I believe they sold off the early ACes. It happens. If you do a search, you will find history about any engine like this one. I do it when I'm picking an engine model for a scratch build. Some have taken me so long to build, they have changed owners while I was building.

 One thing to keep in mind, is how harsh a life these engines have. Ten years of real use puts an amazing amount of miles put on these.

@Sams Trains posted:

Could you go into more detail on how you did that? I'm interested in doing something similar but I don't wanna mess up with the paint

It's really straightforward, as the prototypes weren’t patched carefully you don’t need to worry about getting it perfect. I removed the shell and cleaned the CSX’s with isopropyl alcohol. I masked the entire shell then sprayed the patches with semi-gloss from a rattle can. I didn’t let it dry too long so that the paint was still a little wet when I removed the masking. This created the imperfect mask lines. The lettering was dry transfer that I removed sections to create the stencil look. ( This is removed from the sheet before you rub on the dry transfer.) The dry transfer was sprayed with dullcote. Most of these leasers are not things of beauty, meaning it’s hard to get it wrong. The only thing that I would do differently is that I would wet sand the edges of the existing lettering down prior to patch painting. Don’t be afraid to try this.

Steve

Do you think selling them had something to do with the air hoses and steps snapping off? Lol, Dave 

@Dave Nichols posted:

Do you think selling them had something to do with the air hoses and steps snapping off? Lol, Dave 

I'm not a real RR person. I have to imagine that an air hose snapping off would not make the decision to sell an expensive engine?

I never heard about the steps or the air hoses. I did read about rough running, inside the cab. I believe these were test bed engines and later models were changed??? I'm also guessing there was some type of loco shortage right then and roads were searching for what they could get. The release may have been rushed? Way over my head and I'm just guessing until the pros answer.

I just read about the change of ownership to Cat while (after) the early ACes were produced.