What is the rarest loco or RR car that you have seen?When I went to CA over the week of July 4th I saw two of the ATSF “Super Hoppers”. Those are the 5-unit silver articulated covered hoppers.
The preserved Baldwin Centercab DT-6-6-2000 at the Illinois Railway Museum (MN & S 21). Rode in the cab while it was being moved to the diesel leads. BA-bumph! BA-bumph! BA-bumph! (Engineer shuts down engines) silence.
The last of the E7s at the Railroad Museum
of PA in Strasburg:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=100925
Dave
SP Rotary snowplows & Snow service GP38-2s
UP geometry car.
Loram RG 8 three times, Even got a personal tour of it.
Expirimental 7 axle BN SDP40-2
SP 4449
SP&S 700
UP 3985 & 844
AT&SF 3751
UP DDA40X 6936
UP E units
SP olympic unit (see avatar)
SP Sultzer powered Popsicles
Amtrak F59PHACs pulling the German ICE train on tour
Back about 1985, NS sent one of the SR FP7s southbound on the main line with a GE generator load on a Schnabel car, two dome cars bound for Hayne shop, and a GE caboose. Very strange. Jim
I am among those that can say I saw both of CP’s one of a kinds, 8921 the RSD17, on three occasions, twice in Toronto and once in Hamilton! As for 4744, their M640, I saw that from a Motel on Ile Perrault, west (ouest) of Montreal, on the turn to Ottawa. She didn’t return with the rest of the power, as she’d taken a[censored] near Ottawa, and had to be set out there. I have seen pix of the two together, so that’s the way some one could top this! Then there was the day I was schlepping to work and saw my one and only P30CH on a CSX OCS train on the Belt line here in Mudville far too long ago. But then there was getting into the cab of a Lehigh Valley U23B fresh from Erie, and hearing the engineer say “This is newer than anything I’ve run or driven!” I asked him about the GP38-2s and GP38ACs and he said, “They had been run into (Buffalo) on N&W, and they got broken in, and didn’t feel like these babies (did).” Or sniffing around in the cab of an LV C628 (641) in the Sayre deadline, then seeing it five months later on a Conrail coal drag, very much alive and smoking[;)].
the all american locomotive B&O chessie 3802 although it was restenciled for csx and numbered 2002
southern 4610 roaming the wabash tracks in northern indiana
and the cps 2816 coming for a visit on CSX and its service stop in hire road yard.made matts 3rd birthday really special.
stay safe
joe
Well a lot of the usual stuff…but my fav. of the “rare things” has to be seeing a K-27 going over Cumbres Pass at 1:00 AM or so. I always like the K-27’s more than the larger Mike’s, and there’s something about being woken at 1:00 in the morning by a steam whistle, running over to the tracks in my pajamas and cathcing the crew watering a beautiful loco at the top of a 4% grade. Magic!
I hope I get to see #463 running again someday.
When you’re into freight cars, rare sightings become almost commonplace!
I have several one-car rosters on my list of things seen, and several one-of-a-kind cars from larger rosters.
I’m hoping to go out soon and see UP’s CNW heritage unit again. There’s only one of those, too!
Today’s rare sighting was a NAHX covered hopper that had formerly been lettered PPU, with the same number. I’ve seen stuff like that before, but this was a new series for me.
Guess this would count even if I didn’t actually “see” it…but the George Bush locomotive went by here under a blue tarp on the way to Texas.
I guess the rarest thing I’ve seen was EMD GP38-2 MP 2301, the last unit painted for MP on UP’s roster, I got to see, ride, and operate it just 38 days before it was repainted in UP colors Poplar Bluff, MO.
http://www.pbrail.org/MP_2103.JPG
Also, UP 844, 949, 951, 963B, 1982, 1988, 2001, 2002, 3300, 3985, 6936, and others (the first 6 this year!)
I would have gotten to see that, but it went down the old Mo-Pac, and not down the Cotton Belt.
Hey Zach - yeah I was lucky to see it but I missed getting the shot. Have a good time in Rochelle.
Southern San Luis Valley RR one of a kind locomotive D-500 running at Blanca, Co…
CopCarss: Have you seen it? (for the rest of you folks…neener, neener!)
[8D][8D][8D]
In a museum, the Pioneer Zephyr at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago In the wild, an Alco S1 at the port of Milwaukee, the Conrail OCS train in Buffalo, a Metro North EMD FL-9 in NYC lightning Stripes in NYC and I regularly see CP and CN Drapers here in Milwaukee. Cheers! ~METRO
As a small child I saw the GM Aerotrain running as the UP City of Las Vegas.I saw two of the three ALCo diesel hydraulic units in dead storage in Roseville.I also saw the last A-B set of FTs in storage in Mexico.I saw an A-B set of Santa Fe PAs in storage in San Bernardino.
What hydraulic units were those?
…One of the rarest sights would be: GM’s TRAIN OF TOMORROW…We were in high school and the S&C of the B&O {a coal hauler}, was host of the train. School let us out to make the short trip to the tracks to watch it pass. Location: Kantner, Pa. Time: About 1947. Stainless fluted domed cars, one of a kind…
One of the BN SD60MAC Diesel-Electric Locomotives, just months before being sold by BNSF. It was on an eastbound CN train in the South Bend Subdivision. I was driving towards the tracks when I saw it roll towards Battle Creek. Only 3 SD60MACs were ever built.
Union Pacific United Way SD40-2 on the Canadian National-GTW mainline.
Andrew
I’ve seen a lot of interesting locomotives, but not really anything “rare”. Some of these engines/cars include BNSF 7695, the only wedgie with yellow lettering; BNSF 2003, a GP38-2 with the new logo; A NS Dash 9-40CW, a BNSF SD40-2 and CSX SD40-2 on the same train; one of Amtrak’s “Adirondack” baggage cars (it was on the California Zephyr); a couple Horizon cars on the California Zephyr (I saw this two times); the Loram Rail Grinder in operation in Rutledge, Missouri; an HLCX SD40-2 pulling a coal train all by itself (!!); a BNSF B23-7, one locomotive type not seen too much anymore; plus lots of other interesting combinations. Not anything real unusual, but it is something different to see around here. I’m still looking for my first SD70ACe.