Well today was a great day to go railfanning with fellow TrainBoard member THarms! The wind was wicked but the skys were clear so we headed on down to Mendota IL to see what was going on on the BNSF. On the way we saw this... Brand new! Still has plastic on the exhaust. We thought they must be on the way to Mexico from PA via BNSF and KCS, but why were they here? Finding a broken air hose and coupler started to explain. There were six of these new ES44's in a line behind 3 BNSF engines. The first picture is of the unit that lost its air hose. As soon as the air hose came loose or broke, the consist went into emergency braking and two of the units filled in the slack. First picture has the rear dammage, the second picture shows the trailing unit and damage. The BNSF team is looking at the damage. Too bad, these are BRAND NEW. I don't know if it is a manufactuer problem and if they are going back to PA or not. I'll let THarms tell more, he also got more digital pics than me. Jim
More photos Like BNSF 7173 said, It was quite the surprise to see these units. Here are a few more pictures:
And somemore photos If you look closely in the next picture it looks like a maintenance truck is pulling an ES44. Well...it is. Quite the comical site. :shade:
I'm glad to see that someone else classifies Mexico as non-North-American, even though that's not really true.
It's kind of like what we talked about in that other thread. There's no really appropriate forum to post Ferromex stuff. Maybe we just need to redesignate the International Railways forum as being all railroads outside the U.S. and Canada. Or we can just keep muddling along like we are. Regards Ed
I think the Mexican Railways should be given the same status as the Canadian Railways. After all, since NAFTA, there is a single economy from the Mexican/Guatemalan border to the Canadian Arctic Ocean shore.
In reality, Ferromex is the only one hanging out without a place. Most Mexican railroads classify as either Class II's or Class III's / Shortlines. So they can be posted about on those forums. The only two that are Class 1's are KCSdeM and Ferromex. KCSdeM, being a wholely owned subsidiary of KCS, can be discussed on the KCS forum. So it's only Ferromex that doesn't have a real place. However I go back to my earlier comments. There is normally so little interest in Ferromex on the board (obviously I was happy to see the posts today on the new FXE locos) that I doubt whether it really makes sense to create a separate forum for it. That's why I've never pressed the Admins for one. Regards Ed
It used to be simpler. Canadian railroads ran only in Canada. They owned some US roads, but these had separate identities. Similarly, US and Mexican roads were mostly separate. Now, CN and CP directly own a lot of lines in the US, and the expanded KCS spans the US and Mexico.
Never thought of it until I read your posts, Triplex and Ed. When I lived in NH, we never thought of Canada as International or another country. In NH or at least it used to be like this, all the banks flew both American and Canadian flags, a sign to our friends up north that someone in the bank spoke French. NH was not as bi-lingual as Canada, but French was the most common second languge. I wondered if I should have posted these on the KCS forum but was not sure. At any rate, if I feel homesick, I can now go trackside about a mile from my house and see CN locomotives. Railfanning in Northen New England, I always liked CN and CP, much better than Guilford!
No way. These are Ferromex locos, and have nothing to do with KCS / KCSdeM. No, you posted them in about the only place you could. Ed
Cool, I was so excited to see these locomotives on Saturday! Now I need to see some more stuff from south of the border.
I've posted a couple of threads with photos I took on trips earlier this year just north of Mexico City. Try looking at these threads: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=73997 http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=80779 http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=74023 http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=74024 Regards Ed
As one of the international mods i'm open, I guess with NAFTA these things are only going to get more common on US trackage, so there is logic from that viewpoint that it should have it's own forum. But it's welcome here for as long as it's the 'least worst' option. Great catch, and great pics BTW guys.:thumbs_up:
Beautiful engines here! :thumbs_up: Anyone notice they have snow plows? Are you going to tell me there are glaciers in Mexico? Northern Mexico?
