We still see a lot of SOO locomotives running through were I live in Southern Ontario. We see the white loco’s mostly but every once in awhile you see the odd one painted red.
Yep Jim and others, I found out some surprising facts about SOO 6491. Ran across this when I was looking at a few sites at the same time. Here’s what I got
SOO 6491 had originally started out as Saint Louis and San Francisco (Frisco[SLSF]) SD45 number 909. She was built in Setember 1969. After the BN merger she got renumbered to 6658. Some time after it got renumbered again to BN 6491. Soo Line wound up with her in 1987, right when WC was getting started. As you can see by the pictures Jim posted, it got patched like the MILW units did. In 1992 she got retired and got sold to MKCX (Morrision Knudeson) Well when she got on MKCX she got renumbered to 9528(Sorry Jim I gave you the wrong number in the PM.). This is where it starts getting interesting, well for me anyway. MKCX sold it to Wisconsin Central (WC) some time in the mid 90s.
WC renumber her to 6638, close to her original BN number. In between the time from 1997 and 1998 WC 6638 got rebuilt by WC. She got new control systems, either the EM 2000 system, or the Q-Tron system. Electrical Cabinet upgrades, main generator replacement and other high Voltage upgrades went along with this. By the end of the rebuilding her current weight was 374,000 Pounds. Lighter then most WC SD45 where in the range or close to 382,000 pound and 391,000 pounds. After this she got her new number, 7638, and a Shiny new paint scheme, the WC OLS.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=163406
After the CN merger she got sent all over the system, until sadly some time in late 2006 she got retired.
EDIT: Ran across this site on a Google search. http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr2073.htm Basicaly sums up what I said. (Although I didn’t use this site for the info I posted above.)
(I’m pretty sure most, if not all of this info was
To fill in the gaps, It was Q Tron (the only units that got the EM 2000 were the 74XXs) (7495,7496,7498,and 7499). You can tell by the tubing that goes to the truck axles. Q trons had them like this on the conductors side: (look at it like a truck frame, if it has Q its where the wires went, and if its an O its without the wires)
(Q)–(Q)–(O) [FUEL TANK] (Q)–(O)–(O)
On EM 2000s, there was only one tube that went to an axle, and it was on the middle axle on the first truck on the conductors side, which I believe didnt even have anything to do with the new system, just the speed meter.
Hopefully that helps (yes, I was bored…)
She also had her trucks rebuilt just like most all WC SD45s did, which made them ride like glass right up until they were retired in 2006/2007.
Alec