On most forums and mailing lists the topic of favorite locomotives comes up on a regular basis, more on some less on others. Well over the years I’ve come to belive that ones preferance for a locomotive type comes from a persons first introduction to this hobby of rail fanning.
Mine was at Sparks, Nevada durring 1980 when a friend of mine, a rail fan mentor, taught me how to spot the difference between an EMD SD40T-2 and SD45T-2. And so a locomotive type was added to that list of favorites. That was also when I picked my favorite railroad the Espee.
Well the Espee is gone, but its purchaser still has some of my favorite locos on hand working, although modified on the inside, they still get me excited.
To yesterday. As I passed by Truckee on my way to Tunnel 41, thats on Union Pacifics’ “Overland Route” up on Donner Pass, to catch the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus train, heard the helpers getting placed on the rear of a westbound manifest. Cool, I’d have a westbound to shoot at Tunnel 41 before the circus train passed east.
By the time I got to Tunnel 41, that manifest was tripping the detector at 203.9 near Truckee. I got this train before the circus move.
Although not an unpatched Espee unit, any tunnel motor in any paint gets me going! So this was just great catching an old friend in new paint!
Hi Jim,
great pictures. The hardest thing for me to deal with after the merger was seeing tunnel motors in yellow paint. It just aint right. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it either.
For almost 4 years from the end of 1999 to spring of 2004 I never exposed a frame. So, I understand that, but during that time when I’d see one of those T-motors in any paint, I’d think you got to get out rail fanning again.
There’s a guy that post photos of the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway and he has some T-motor photos, just love them old friends no matter what the paint.
SP9033, that train you caught before the circus train was a really good shot! I think the smoke rising up from the exhaust really does do something for the picture. NICE.
Nice pIctures Jim. While an SP or DRGW painted Tunnel motor might have been more appropriate, at least its a fresh coat of yellow, without too much grime on it. It’s always a ncie treat to have a clean lead motor.
And although it doesn’t seem appropriate either, that DMIR paint on a Tunnel looks schweeeeeeet!
That’s an Espee legacy that Union Pacific inherited, that they will never be rid of as long as the UP shoves trains over the pass. We Espee fans call it “Tunnel Mist.” So the next time you’re out and about and spot a sooty UP unit on your favorite the CSX, please think “tunnel mist,” compliments of Espee’s legacy of the Cascades in Oregon and Donner Pass in California.
Those DMIR units look sharp. They don’t bother me like the UP yellow ones. I don’t know why but something about them in yellow that tightens me up. I don’t know if it’s because they are in UP colors or if it’s just something about yellow paint. Same thing goes for the GP60s, they just don’t look right in UP paint.
I now understand what drives those Alco fans crossing the country in search of there favorites. Would love having some DMRI and KCS T-motors in my photo colection.
And me being the Espee fan that I am, got Bob Churches book “Cab-Forward.”
Also, on the shove behind this manifest, was a duo of GEs, on approaching the tunnel from the east, heard the head-end mention to the helper crew; “Got your respirators handy?” Helpers to head-end; “yep, we’ve got five handy!”
That’s just where I live, between Reno and Verdi at Lawton, NV MP 235.5 on UPs’ “Overland Route.” I was a native Californian, left the San Francisco Bay Area in 1968 and came to Nevada via Susanville, California in 1981. There is no state income tax here, a plus!
My favorite CURRENT scheme on the tunnel motors is Bessemer&Lake Erie orange.Those are good looking engines.I will NEVER get used to tunnel motors painted yellow[:(!]!
[:O] theropy…[:O] re-education…Hey, wait a minuet…whats that white boxcar for?[%-)]…what are you gonna do with those shackles?..Oh [censored], espeefoamer run, run while you still can, before the borg assimilates you!!!
