I hear BNSF is going to renumber 960-1123 series C44-9Ws into the 4200s and 5500s, though I’m not sure when. I think BNSF wants to free up the 1000 series for future gensets.
Not only that he said the GP, SD38-40 series locos would be gone by 2011!
Maybe the GPs and SDs that haven’t been rebuilt in recent years will be the ones to be kicked off the roster? BNSF purchased 40 GP38-2 rebuilds from NRE in 2006, and are currently rebuilding ex-ATSF GP35s and 38s, and rebuilt several former ATSF SD45s into SD40-3s in the last year or two, which makes me think they won’t be leaving the roster anytime soon. I bet BNSF will make heavy use of Gensets in California for switcher and yard duties since they’ll have tougher emissions standards than anywhere else. I can see BNSF retiring GP40s and 50s right away. GP38-2s I’m not so sure, though the one’s that haven’t been rebuilt in the last several years are over 30 years old.
Well another favorite just carelessley smeared off the roster to the genset. What do yall’ think of the Modesto & Empire Traction locmotives goind to have holes drilled through their engien blocks? At least these loco’s have had good lives, the GE’s of Modesto and the SD38-40 series’s. We will alway remember them. Probably 30 years from now we will see a GEVO shoving at the rear of a low priority freight rolling up the Moffat ine and say “WOW THAT’S A GEVO” and go nuts over them.