Happy weekend everyone! Who's ready for another edition of Weekend Proto Fun? To kick it off, I was in Frisco TX this past weekend and found this gem. She sure is a good looking engine.
It's not often Amtrak is led by a freight unit and almost a day late, but a couple weeks ago during a nasty cold snap train 8 was about 19 hours late, seen in waning daylight at blue hour when it's normally dark night. A Charger and two veteran P42s led the train before the BNSF unit was required.
Looks like one of the veterans had to go to the VA... The freight engine needs to be in the lead because of the HEP requirements of the passenger cars. It's not like the steam generator era when 1st generation Geeps and Alcos could be fitted with "pass-through" steam lines (though they did that to spare themselves the shame of running a freight unit in front of nice shiny passenger engines). I suppose it could be done with HEP but it doesn't happen often enough (until lately... ) that freight units have to pitch in to justify the extra expense and maintenance. Maybe Amtrak should have at least some of those P42s rebuilt. They seem to be falling apart at the seams.
On Monday, January 16th, NS 8098, a faded and dirty Conrail Heritage unit, leads NS 26X East through Wyo JCT on a warm and sunny day.
