Hello everyone… I was just surff’n the net lookin at info on the J. I was checking out pictures on Railpictures.net and on a caption of shot of EJ&E 650 heading west to morris, It had said that this locomotive was retired? Is this true? If my memory serves me right, I do believe 650 was just rebuilt year or 2 ago?
Wonder what is to become of the J’s SD’s? (Sure would be nice if CN donated one to the Illinois railway musem) [swg] Just a thought!
As of right now, only a couple of J units have been retired, while more have been sent out across the CN system in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
650 has indeed been retired and sold to S&S Leasing. Rumor has it 650 may find its way onto the Squaw Creek Southern. 654, the other straight SD38, is stored. All the SD38-2s remain in service and can be found on the J, IC, WC, DWP and the Missabe in yard, local or transfer service. They can be now seen in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. They have been sighted everywhere from Proctor Yard to the Twin Cities. A big hangout for them seems to be around Stevens Point on the WC, as 665 has been hanging onto local service there for over two months now.
650 and the J switchers that have went to CN have been retired, with two SW1001s going to LTEX. The SDMs, SD18s and 654 are stored, but probably won’t return to service with CN.
Crews seem to like the rebuilt J SD38-2s. Many of them were rebuilt within the past 7 years and are technically SD38-3s.