I've been working in Corwith yard Chicago since February. There is a brand new wash rack here that has "not" been used. People around for a while say the facility has "never" been. In the last 2 1/2 years the only clean locomotives I've seen are new ones and repaints. Guess Mr. Krebs doesn't want to spend the money for soap and water!
Have a buddy working in Alliance on the hostler board and he's never seen a unit washed in there. The power is taken off the trains and serviced, then placed back out on the ready tracks for assignment. Through freight power is usually not touched untill Lincoln.
Getting back to the original topic, Gats posted a note about the units going back into service and i must say i've seen a lot of solid large SD40-2 sets in the past week... One SD45-2 for good measure as well! I don't know where the source is but they're out there.
Of course, J/K stands for Just Kidding. I don't mind the Santa Fe. In fact, I even have an ATSF book on my shelf. However, I have been known to bleed Cascade Green on occasion. I was there at Northtown that day and wrote all those numbers down for everyone's reference.
It amazes me how so many locomotives can be taken out of service yet the railroad still functions. I was in awe of the site of so many locomitves laying idol I suppose it has to do with the fact that here in Australia our railways are small branch line compared to USA. Although our continent is 80% the size of USA our continent caters for 19 million people compared to 200 million or so in USA. great to see the SD40's back in service but for how long? ------------------ Paul Cassar-# Member number 50 ICQ 61198217 http://users.bigpond.net.au/railroad2000
Well, I was out yesterday again, and there are locos parked here again. This time there are about a dozen locos parked here. Mostly Santa Fe SD45 locos with a few BNSF and BN SD40-2 locos. One strange thing, I have seen lots of leased equipment lately. I wonder why they are using lease equipment instead of their own? Matt
Perhaps cost? I have seen a few leased units as well... Here's a shot of Denver's facility and you can see one ?(can't remember the name!) unit- http://clem.mscd.edu/~jimenez/Stuff/Denver.JPG It's not a great shot, but you can get an idea of the facility. This was on Saturday. I haven't been able to really take any train pics, too busy, but i'll keep trying...
