Check this out! I just became the happiest foamter this side of the Mississippi! http://www.trainboard.com/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=25&t=000274 Checkout pics below in my webshots album! I have plenny more, not all from the cab. I should have taken more in the cab..... the engineer, me and my friend Matt.
You are a lucky man indeed and you have some great pics as proof of your adventure! Way to go! A Hemi-Powered BN unit! Russ
Just had a look at the pics. Jerry, you are a lucky railfan As it is a BN unit, Matt will be green with envy (BN green, that is)
Alan, Matt is mostly an Espee fan..... But he has announced that he will model this exact SD40-2, as he had a great time, too.
I to got a cab ride this time last year in almost brand new UP SD70M 4171. A friend of mine and my self had set out on our bikes early in the morning and biked about 7 miles over a hill to the City Of Industry (less then 20 miles from Los Angeles) where UP aquired an old SP yard. Our trip was planned by myself because I wanted to try out my brand new camcorder I had gotten the day before off Ebay. We were biking around the yard area and about 1/2 mile away from west end of the yard we saw three engines sitting up on an incline and I started filming. The train was moving back and forth because it's rear end was in the yard and the brakeman was doing switching. The engineer saw us and waved for us to come on up. I couldn't believe it at first but we got closer and he yelled to hurry up the little embankment because he was on track two and a train was coming on track one. We could see it VERY well (it was doing about 60 and less then 1/4 mile away. He opened the front door and by the time we got inside it was passing by. He showed us all the controls, etc. and we started talking and it turns out he knows a UP engineer friend of mine. Anyway, it was a GREAT experience. I only have video this experience though. :-( oh well. Just be careful of who hears about your little experience! If someone high up in the company who is a real hard ace hears about this and knows the date and engine number, that engineer can lose his job.
Notice no names mentioned! I also thought about that,and took it into consideration, to protect the innocent....
