Kennecott Utah Copper Locomotive Roster

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This page was last updated on September 5, 2024.

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Miscellaneous Notes

The following two items come from an interview with Don Husband, Kennecott's General Locomotive Foreman, in his office at the Dry Fork shops on October 21, 1983, He graciously reviewed his personal log book to find unusual items.

Retirement dates given are taken direct from Kennecott records. Kennecott shows this information as "PDA", for Property Disposal Authority.

Kennecott and Helm at UtahRails

(First published in the UtahRails.net blog on January 1, 2012)

For several years, based on information from a trusted source, the early versions of this roster showed that most of the diesel locomotives used at Kennecott's Bingham Canyon, and the railroad to the mills, were owned by Helm Financial, of San Francisco, and leased to Kennecott. New research in the filings of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and its Surface Transportation Board successor, found new information.

Railroad equipment used on the nation's rail network is subject to numerous regulations, including a recommendation that agreements concerning equipment financing be documented and records submitted to the ICC (and after 1996, to the STB). These records are akin to filing a document at the office of your local county recorder. These are called "recordations," and are part of the public record for the nation's railroads.

In January 2005, Joe Ferguson wrote describing the ICC and STB records: "recordations are not a requirement, but are highly recommended in any transaction involving the sale of a locomotive or rail car from one party to another where the buyer does not intend to dismantle the railcar or locomotive. Unlike automobiles, there are no titles to locomotives. Recordations are the only way to keep an accurate record in the event that there is a claim of ownership by one party vs. another. Most recordations are turned in by financial institutions (banks, leasing companies, etc.) because they understand this is the only way to protect themselves in a world where possession is 9/10th of the law." (Research shows that the ICC and STB recordations are not even close to being a complete record of locomotive ownership.)

A big thank you goes to Joseph Yarbrough for helping me get started with researching these very interesting records. Among the recordations, I found lots of references to Helm Financial, and its heavy involvement with financing and leases of railroad equipment. But I found nothing about Helm Financial having any business with Kennecott Copper. There are, however, several filings for Kennecott, showing security agreements with First Security Bank of Utah. An internet search to define some of the terms used in the security agreements helped me to understand that the agreements were essentially loans to purchase the locomotives, using the locomotives themselves as collateral. While the loan was being paid, the bank leased the locomotives to Kennecott. At the end of the lien/lease period, Kennecott took full ownership of the locomotives.

The fact that Kennecott owned the locomotives at the end of the lien/lease helps explain how in the late 1990s, as Kennecott found that it no longer needed them, the locomotives started to be scattered to a wide variety of new owners. The variety showed that someone was acting as a broker agent for Kennecott, since the copper company is not in the used locomotive business. That someone was most assuredly Helm Financial, which has plenty of experience with buying, selling, and financing leased railroad equipment. Several locomotives were sold directly to Helm, which in turn leased them to several railroads. Others were sold directly to new companies. At least one Kennecott locomotive stayed in the Rio Tinto organization, and was moved to the company's borax mine in California. Most of the high-cab former mine locomotives had to have their high cabs changed to standard cabs. This conversion work was done at several locations, by companies that specialize in custom work on railroad equipment.

Two weeks during December 2011 were spent researching the ICC and STB recordations, combining the new information with existing research notes, to make for a much better story of the last years of railroad equipment at Bingham Canyon.

Kennecott GP39-2s

Total of 31 locomotives; 28 unique high-cab locomotives and three standard-cab locomotives.

Kennecott 705-711 (7 units) delivered in 1980
Kennecott 779-789 (11 units) delivered in 1977
Kennecott 790-799 (10 units) delivered in 1978
Kennecott 905 (1 unit) delivered in 1976 (standard cab)
Kennecott SM-1 and SM-2 (2 units) delivered in 1981 (standard cab; later Kennecott 101 and 102)

In 1983, with the conversion of all waste removal from rail haulage to truck haulage, more than a third of the locomotives became surplus. In the original 11-unit group (KCC 779-789) delivered in 1977, two were re-assigned to Ore Haulage; Kennecott 784 became 910 and Kennecott 786 became 911.

The other nine in the 779-789 group left Bingham in 1983 and were leased by Kennecott to the Missouri Kansas Texas Railroad, which had their unique high cabs lowered to the more standard design. Some are still in service today as Union Pacific locomotives.

The remaining 19 high-cab locomotives were in service until the late 1990s as Rio Tinto's entire Kennecott Utah Copper operation at the Bingham mine, and the Magna mill and Garfield smelter went through numerous declines and changes.

In late 1999, Dry Fork shops were closed and the rail equipment storage line removed. The need for railroad equipment dropped considerably in 1999-2000 when the last reload site was relocated from the open pit mine, out to the former site of Dry Fork shops. The last ore train from inside the mine operated on March 29, 2000.

The Dry Fork reload site was closed in 2001 and the last ore train from Bingham to Magna was operated on May 30, 2001.

In 2002, three high-cab units were retained by Kennecott for its operations moving rail cars between the Magna mill, the Garfield refinery and smelter, and the Union Pacific interchange. These three GP39-2s were sold to the contractor who took over the Garfield switching contract in 2002.

In 2002, there were 11 GP39-2s (10 high cabs and one low cab), including the three Garfield units, along with two MP15ACs. All remained at various locations within Kennecott's Utah complex until they were sold to their later owners in the 2005-2008 period.

Donation To NHRS-Promontory Chapter

On May 10, 1983, Kennecott donated a total of ten locomotives (three electric locomotives, and seven diesel locomotives), along with other pieces of rail equipment to the Promontory Chapter of National Railway Historical Society in Salt Lake City, Utah. The equipment donated included:

(Seven of the above locomotives were photographed in April 1983 in a line of eight retired locomotives (722, 729, 731, 734, 742, 775, 776, 777) sitting at Kennecott's precipitation plant at Copperton, awaiting interchange to D&RGW.)(disposition of 722 is not known)

The ten locomotives donated to the Promontory Chapter were stored on inactive SLG&W trackage west of Salt Lake City beginning in mid-May 1983, and were seen there in September 1983. Several were seen in UP's North Yard in Salt Lake City in late December 1983, with others still stored on SLG&W as late as April 1984.

Two of the three electric locomotives (Kennecott 759 and 761), and six of the seven diesels (Kennecott 729, 731, 734, 742, 776, 777) were sold in December 1983 to Industrial Salvage & Metals (Salt Lake City, Utah), in trade for Utah Railway RSD-4 number 306 and RSD-15 401; all eight locomotives were scrapped between January and June 1984.

Diesel 775 was offered for sale by the Promontory Chapter, but not sold, scrapped in July 2010.

Electric 402 was traded to Oquirrh Mountain Mining Museum in November 1998; displayed at the Deseret Peak Complex (motor sports center) near Grantsville, Utah, along with caboose 426 (ex MP caboose 13661).

KCC vs. KMC

In response to a question on November 18, 2019, asking how many Kennecott locomotives received the later KMC (Kennecott Minerals Company) letters, compared to the original KCC (Kennecott Copper Corporation) letters.

The person asking the question shared that he had slides of the following KMC lettered units:

KMC MP15AC 121

KMC early electrics 700, 702, 713, 718, 720, 724, 749, 758, 759, 760

KMC late electrics 761, 762, 763, 764, 765, 766, 767, 768, 770, 771, 772, 778

My response:

My own research suggests that the Kennecott Minerals Company (KMC) name was first used in mid 1979. In May 1980 Kennecott Copper Corporation changed its name to Kennecott Corporation, and the worldwide mining operations were formally placed under control of KMC.

In February 1982, a SOHIO news release stated that Kennecott Minerals Company became part of the new Sohio Metals Mining Group, with responsibility for Sohio's interests in copper, gold, silver, molybdenum, lead and zinc. The other groups included the Sohio Oil and Gas Group, the Downstream Petroleum Group, the Chemical and Industrial Products Group. Other references from 1985 show the Utah copper mine as Kennecott Minerals Company, Utah Copper Division.

The mine shut down in April 1985, and the mills and smelter were shut down in August 1985. The mine reopened in September 1986, and the mills restarted in December 1986. The new smelter at Garfield produced its first copper in July 1987. In late 1986, Kennecott sold its operations in New Mexico and Arizona. (Nevada had been shut down in September 1978.)

Railroad operations were severely cut back with the mine modernization of 1985-1986. Most of the ore haulage in the mine was replaced by a conveyor belt to the new mill at Copperton, and a slurry pipeline to the Garfield smelter. Railroad operations were only used as backup for when the slurry pipeline was out of service.

In September 1987 Sohio was changed to BP America, with KMC still as a subsidiary.

In July 1989, BP sold the Kennecott business to RTZ (later Rio Tinto), and March 1992 the Utah copper mine (and its railroad operations) became Kennecot Utah Copper, a subsidiary of RTZ of England. Although there was still a Kennecott Minerals Company, it did not include any of the metal mines, and specifically did not include the Utah railroad operations.

So it is safe to say that the KMC name was in place from mid 1979 through mid 1989, and any locomotives delivered in that time period likely had the Kennecott Minerals Company name applied to them. Several were locally painted with KMC letters. The wide-cab MP15ACs (120-122) and the SD40-2s (101-107) were delivered in 1978 lettered as Kennecott Copper Corporation. The standard MP15ACs (701, 704) were delivered in late 1978, also with KCC lettering.

When the 900-series units (the green units) were relettered in the mid 1980s, they received KMC letters, "KMC, Utah Copper Division." When 123, 910 and 911 were transferred in 1983-1984, they were repainted as green units, and lettered as just "Kennecott," not as KMC. I think only the two red smelter units were delivered in 1981 lettered as Kennecott Minerals Company.

The last train of ore was loaded in the mine in March 2000, with the ore being moved by train to the North Complex (Bonneville crusher and Magna mill), supplementing the Copperton mill. The North Complex was shut down in 2001, and all railroad operations between the mine and the smelter ended in June 2001. In December 2001, Kennecott shut down its railroad operations in the vicinity of the refinery and smelter at Garfield, and the operations have been contracted out since that time.

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