Business must be good on BNSF these days as I say no fewer than three hot Z trains come through Eola today powered by two or three SD40-2 units (one of these trains had two SD40-2 units still in green and black as the sole power). Anybody else witnessed such power lashups on hot trains lately?
i’m not sure what’s “Z” and what’s not but i see a lot of sd-40’s on intermodal trains.
Jim
It is probably all the returned Christmas gifts being sent back to China.[(-D][(-D][(-D]
Jay
It’s not uncommon to have two or three SD40’s on the ZCHCSTP or ZSTPCHC. Its usually a pretty light short train. Also lately we’ve been running a lot of baretable trains with all empty trailers. They kind of look like a Z train. Usually the baretable trailer trains have alot of BNSF, Tip, and Xtra trailers.
Yes I did see all of those trains today, while railfanning photos at http://amtrakfan.rrpicturearchives.net then click the Jan/Fed Album.
Saw the ZCHCSTP a month or two back and it had 2 older GP-60’s for power. Old blue bonnets. 5,200 feet of train with those 2 horses.
I think you might mean “repo trains” (repo= empy repositioning trailers or containers). I believe that a “baretable” train is one w/ just bare cars (sans trailers).
The Chi - St Paul corridor runs more heavily loaded west, but empties flow back toward Chicago.
BNSF is having a very, very heavy year. Revenues have hit records for several periods - as have earnings… and rates to customers. BNSF is very congested in a lot of places, which is really dragging service reliability down. Through the fall and upto Christmas, they were plagued by being chronically short of power all over the network - hence the old SD-40’s in intermodal service. It ain’t pretty unless you’re just out there to collect a ton of photos.
Funny them Lacrosse crybabies are running them. All the GEVO’s in Cicero went to Lacrosse it seemed. We couldnt catch anything decent out of there.
Never heard of a repo train, I have passed baretabel symboled trains with vans on them ( makes me go huh whats that?) but lately I am in the west pool so intermodal for me is a thing of the past ( well until I get squeezed out and back to the east pool) and I know we have added a bunch of turns and looks like more to the GALLAW pool as well! Buisness is real good and getting better as we have picked up a contract that the UP stole from us ( coal trains wise) and are double tracking from Creston to Lincoln( great for getting the trains MOVING!)
SD40-2’s on intermodal is fine, but I wanted to get a pic of the GP39 that was with a SD70 mac on a eastbound coal load!Can we say 2 miles an hour up the hills?
saw 2 sd 40-2s in heritage 1 paint taking an empty powder river train back west.a conductor told me they accelerate alot better when you have speed restrictions for diamonds and work zones.
stay safe
Joe
HAHAHA[:D][swg] ya they’re cool
That’s good. I am glad that the BNSF is making good money. More than I can say for the UPRR. Traffic is very slow.
I see SD40-2’s on the Z STPCHC and CHCSTP all the time but what suprises me is 3 SD40-2’s on the Z SSECHC or CHCSSE.
Also I often see 3 GP38’s on the S TACCHC.
Yes, seeing SD40-2’s on an intermodal is really nothing very rare, BUT seeing pure SD40-2 lashups on Z trains is quite rare and that is what I saw three times yesterday.
This is kind of depressing, but what year do you think we will stop seeing SD-40-2s in regular Class-1 Freight service? I think they are fairly ubiquitos still. They kind of remind my of B-52s, which the military predicts might have an 80-year service life.
It will be a sad day for me when the last one is pulled out of service. I hope TRAINS does an article on it like they did for the last U-boat to go–I think it was a CSX unit.
Gabe
It will be a while as FEC has about a half a dozen or more they recently got some still in yellow from UP. They have a history of running them till the wheels fall off(not into the ground). They may still have active GP9’s in yard servise. I saw one on a local a few years ago with GP38-2 on point. If they can fix it they run em.!!! While they drop from class 1 rosters they will soldier on for many years. [2c]
I wonder when the last Geep was pulled from Class 1 service? Are there and SD-9s still around? I seem to remember Ed Blysard posting some not too long ago–I almost stood up and cheered just at the thought of them still being in Class 1 service . . .
Gabe
P.S. Good point about the FEC. When I say Class 1, I mean the big 7.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn the IC still has a GP-10 running around somewhere?
Gabe
There’s a bunch of SD-9ers that visit Northtown. I have yet to see one as a leader on a train. Although when I was down in Savanna, IL, there was some power in the yard, and somebody stole our GP38. The trainmaster said take that SD-9! Sweet, but my engineer refused it.
The only reason the FEC lost class one status was the increase in track milage if my memory serves me correctly. Being land locked they will probably never atain it again. I beleive they used to meet the other requirements. Last month on the dead line at BNSF Argentine yard in KS there was a SD9/high nose painted GN black and green, two GP9’s/low nose painted ATSF warbonet yellow/blue, and a CF7 WB yellow and blue. Thats what happens to classic power on Class 1’s. The FEC’c lone GP9 was belching LaGrange smoke and tugging a cut of cars that went as far as I could see!!! [wow] There “yard dog” was still barking!! [yeah] Sadly the dead line units will probably never bark again.[:(] Asalways ENJOY
Is UP still running SD 40’s?
I saw an NS train Friday and the second unit was a UP unit that looked like an SD40 series.
Didnt get the unit number, of course.
ed
Pleanty, and T-2s too.