railroad@ucbvax.ARPA (06/13/85)
From: Steve Bjork <BJORK@SU-SUSHI.ARPA> The Peninsula commuter service has received at least five new F40's in May. They have seen heavy usage, with GP9's and an occasional GP40P taking up the slack. The SDP45's have seen much less use, due to excessive failures of the 18 year old units. The GP9's have been run through SP's Sacramento shops in an upgrade program several years ago, and are much more reliable than the 45's. They do tend to run in pairs, though, due to a lack of power. This afternoon, after work, I saw a 'push' style train head up to SF. I believe this is the first such revenue run for this type of operation. The new order of bilevel cars included control cars required for this style of operation. Only consists of new cars can be operated in 'push' mode due to the lack of train control wiring in the older cars. There is also a special run of the old Harriman '80 footers' being set up before they are retired. I don't have the details at this time, though. --Steve -------