on sunday, while driving across new mexico, just east of gallup i happened to glance over at the BNSF transcon. well, i just happened to see a UP double stack/tofc train heading west.
was this guy lost? i have never seen a UP train on this stretch of track before. another trainwatching trucker i know saw it just east of flagstaff. anyone know why a UP train was on the transcon.
also, this morning i saw a UP train heading into Indio CA with a BNSF C44-9W in the consist. thats almost as strange as the UP C60AC i saw in a bnsf train leaving barstow last year.
Night Crawler, probably working off “engine hours”. When railroads use anothers locomotives in revenue, they owe the owning road money or an equal number of hours from one of their locomotives. Hence, UP locomotives on the BNSF, KCS, NS, CSX, CN, CP, etc. And BN locomotives the same way on the UP with BNSF locomotives.
There was a pair of UP Flag units running out of Bostic Yard on CSX in North Carolina for a couple of days last week. NC is a loooong way from UP territory. They were always pulling mixed freights, and last seen heading toward Charlotte.
Seeing Southern Pacific and NS units on the Wisconsin Central was a sight to behold
as well (when the WC had an iron ore haulage agreement with the SP and I believe
the NS units were leased).
unfortunately, i missed out on pictures of the UP train. it had (i think) 5 locomotives and it was pulling mostly APL containers. i did notice that they had stacks of ties out along the UP line between Tucumcari and Santa Rosa NM, but there were still trains operating on that route. i remember a few months back BNSF was detouring over this route to bypass trackwork on the Belen cutoff. all the BNSF trains looked like they were too long for most of the sidings! maybe they are repaying UP by letting some run over the transcon.
but, i did find a picture of that UP C60AC on the eastbound BNSF train. and i got a shot of the first SOO line diesel that i have seen south of Chicago.
and a shot of some CSX power heading across AZ. there was quite a bit of CSX and NS power on all the UP trains. maybe they had to use CSX and NS crews due to the shortage and they brought along their own power…[:D][:D]
Nightcrawler - Keep the pictures coming! Very nice shots. Especially the SOO. I’ve seen one or two in Indiana before but that was a long time ago. You’re right, its rare to see them south of Chicago anymore.
