Yeah, they're dragging out everything that's in storage. Been seeing alot of weird stuff-yesterday alone, 3 CP rail units alone on a Z-train, then 2 CN units as sole power on a baretable, plus everything else you'll normally see on the BNSF. Reminds me of the 90's when everything was mis-mashed together after the merger!
Talking with friends on the BNSF, they are hurting for power. The new non-maintenance program is proving to be problematic, at best. Lots of stored 70MAC's are being fired up, and some of the older stored -9's. Maybe they will figure it out, but probably not. Got the 777 the other day. Solo powering on a smoky day,
Crossing the Sunset Route in Rosenberg back in November 2006. They added a pony to the hitch to pull the load.
I think this is Crew 4 from Auburn Yard to Tacoma Yard with a SB local, got to the crossing just in time! Looks like a GP50, but says GP25.
It was definitely a GP50 at some point in life. Looks like it has been re-worked and is now remote control capable. And that might be the reason for a designation change?
I wonder if it's de-tuned for lower power to get by the Tier-4 standards? It was struggling even with this short consist!
A while ago I looked at BNSF's rosters between 2000 and 2010 to find a year, best fitting the models accumulated on my shelfs (should I ever find the knack to build a layout). One of the things I found was, how easy to model a "GP25" - just a change of lettering, when BNSF derated the horsepower on some GP50s to 2500hp in 2005/2006. In some forums I read speculations this could allow BNSF to classify the modified units as yard engines and as such allow higher emission rates.
I actually saw one on a container chassis behind a truck yesterday on Interstate 45 south of Dallas. I had never been up close to see the small lettering for the company name "Ocean Network Express" before.