I was leaving for work this morning and saw the WP heritage unit leaving Roseville yard with a 8-40cw in tow. I am assuming that if it went up there without a train they are using it as a manned helper. I am curious though that since the weather is so hot would they need extra power to help a train over the hill to keep the normal units from overheating? I was assuming that would be one of the few reasons to use manned helpers instead of DPUs that cant help at the steep points or tunnels.
Dave
I doubt that it’s in helper service. As far as I know they are not running manned helpers on the hill these days. From what I hear they only use manned helpers when the Canyon line is out of service and detouring over Donner. That could have changes though so it is possable. The WP unit seems to be running pretty consistantly between Stockton/Roseville and Ogden/Salt Lake City.
Chad,
Have any of the Heritage units been down our way, and how would we be able to know if they would be?
Yes, The 1983 has made a couple of appearances. There is usually pleanty of warning on the SoCalrailfan forum. I know it’s been running across Nevada for the last few weeks because Matt (an engineer on the Portola/Sparks -to- Elko pool) has been posting pictures of it on another forum.
So is it my best bet to keep checking on SoCalrailfan to see if there is any news?
Yes.
Here it is East of Carlin, Nv. at the end of June
It was also at the WPRR Museum right before they took there train (with the UP DDA40X 6936) up to Dunsmuir for railroad days. I don’t think 1983 went with it though.