This train was here today, with the CN unit on the headend behind an ACe, And on the 20th it was here with a GE on the point.
And yesterday, it went through again, albeit somewhat slower as it was just climbing out of town on it's way east, and fully loaded. Earlier this week, I got 'stuck' in the rain with this guy,
Haven't had a lot of time to railfan lately, but did catch this guy, until my SD card was full! Dang it.
Spotted a 'new' 40-2 here today, the 1568, formerly SF 5657, an SD45-2 on delivery. Looks like fairly new paint on it, too!
They are cheaper to rebuild, as long as you don't exceed 50% of the total value of the unit. If you do, then it has to have it's emissions brought up to Tier 4, I think. And that is at least a 250,000 upgrade!
That 1568 is really an odd duck. Surprised they kept the radiator grills in the SD45-2 configuration, but modified the radiator fans to SD40-2 configuration. If you modeled this, the rivet counter police would haul you away...
The rivet cops haven't seen my layout yet... they're worse than the phone cops! The average new one is around $2 million (plus or minus if AC or DC). Spending 300 or even 500 grand on an upgrade isn't so bad. That's a half-dozen or so almost-new engines for the price of one. Think SD70ACU - those old SD90MACs sitting in storage doing nothing must have saved quite a bit of coin to be worth the effort. Or NS rebuilding old SD50s into SD40Es. CP's GP20C-ECOs and SD30C-ECOs. If it wasn't a money-saving affair, they would have bought new ones. It's all about the bottom line. If one can buy an older car rebuilt with all the newfangled modern technology and mechanics for a fraction of the price of a new one... I'm in! (I'll take a 1969 Newport, 2-dr hardtop, all dressed... ).
I for onr, would dearly like to see the industry br reborn. Rebuilding locomotives is a lot of work, but a lot of fun, too.
So it has been too busy to video the occasional train, they are fewer lately. But we took time Friday evening to chase a train or two, and got rewarded with two! The Sidney local was first, and it was short with a pair of 40-2's. Then there was a load. It had to clear the main so another load could get in before the crew went "dead" on hours. It was interesting radio chatter before they got the green, as they coached the dispatcher in how to do this more seemlessly. So here's the local, And the load,
This set was eastbound yesterday, And a couple of evenings ago, another coal drag, And a real kluge job of a SF unit, funny looking but it would be a fun one for a modern era guy to build! And a close up of a lost FNM.
Geez, that 4729 is an H2, but has an H1 door below the engineer, and that BNSF Bonnet hood, lol!! "Frankenloco"!!
