A long way from home....

....yesterday in South Seattle.

 

Yes, that is a pretty long way from "home". There are 2 BNSF units in the Raleigh, N.C. yard this morning.

Harold

 

We've been seeing alot of NS units up here lately. Some are sayin' merger talks, puttin' the "NS" in B'NS'F.

 

You know, I thought the same thing when I was looking at some photos the other day... lop off the horse, add a white B and F to the NS, and you've got an ultra cheap post-merger paint job :-0

However, you'd probably have to go to a 5 digit numbering system (eventually).

Harold

 

The stars must be out of alignment. While I was waiting for my wife at ther doctors office last Thursday. I had the window down because we had a 70 degree day here in MI and I heard this loud noise rumbling, and as the train came into view, a southbound coming out of Flint area, there were 2 BNSF units (not sure if they were Dash 8's or 9's) both badly weather beaten pulling an abnormally long consist of covered hoppers and tankers.
CSX doesn't normally have long trains (30 to 50) running through this area,but this one seemed almost double the length.
Those engines are LOUD, not to mention the horns.

With all the selling of power units, makes you wonder whose buying what from who these days.

 

Then you get the added run-thru solid loco sets, lease units, "hour payback" units, etc. We get solid sets of CN units come down from Canada and back, looks like Vancouver half the time around here!!

 

Kurt.....saw a unit grain train come by the house (Belgrade MT.) earlier this week that had 2 NS units and one BNSF unit on the front (with MRL crews:tb-biggrin headed west. I see NS and CSX units fairly regularly here.....also KCS. My favorites were the NdeM last year.

 

I used to see a ton of UP power on CSX about 5 years ago... I guess they have enough GEVO's now to keep the foreign power off... Foreign power on NS has dropped of significantly in the past few years, although occasionally they will make their way on priority intermodals. NS is leasing a ton of power right now and seems to have very few units stored (servicable).

Harold

 

Maybe, that's the reason I saw those two monsters BNSF's up here in MI. They were impressive, but also real weather torn.

 

NS INTO BNSF

:tb-cool:HMM NS going into BNSFl wonder how union pacific would respond to this & other rail companies like CN CP CSX & KCS shorley if this did happen it would have to be approve by shareholders of NS & VNSF & the STB jeffrey UP1995 Vancouverbirdwhite@yahoo.com

 

Foreign road locomotives aren't so rare these days. A few years back I spotted a MRL SD45 on a coal train in Grafton, WV. I remember as a kid seeing a pair of Wisconsin Central SD's working the old B&O Cowen Sub for a couple weeks one spring.

Occasionally a UP or NS unit will pop up in the area, but these days everything seems to be dominated by GEVO's and AC4400's.

 

I caught a pair of NS catfish on a CSX northbound at Rocky Mount today,,, the units may have been in Hamlet and stuck on the train. Unusual to see NS power on the CSX "A" line.

 

I can tell you right now the STB would go into absoltue FITZ over a transcon merger. Can you say monopoly?

I saw quite a bit of UP and BNSF around Lafeyette IN when I was there, swinging up/down from Danville Ill. So to skip over to MI from there does not seem a big stretch. I also see a bit of KCS come through cenral IN, but that's because they head up the Scheider train and CSX doesn't cut the power off when they take over. Theoretically, a KCSDM could come through in that way.

Now, the oen I want to see, that others have and I've not, us the Ferroequil (check the spelling) engine that's made several trips into Avon IN yard... Yes folks, a MEXICAN loco in Indiana.