Hello- Once upon a time, rail photographers would wake up on a Saturday and think "do I really want to go out and shoot another train being led by SD40-2s?" ... fast-forward 30 years, and the situation has changed a bit. Now, the though is "holy cow...I have the opportunity in 2010 to see three EMD units with Spartan cabs running solo on a train!?" Such was the case last Saturday on the Joint Line south of Denver, CO. Canadian Pacific (which seems to be rare enough here in Colorado) was repaying some power miles to BNSF in the form of two SD40-2s and a (SOO) SD60. The trio was leading up the Denver to Pueblo manifest. The train was originally supposed to get out of town around 1pm. However, much to my advantage, it didn't actually hit the road until around 4pm. That worked out perfect for me as I wouldn't have been able to make it to town by 1pm! Even though I wound up being a little later for dinner, it was well worth a quick journey south along the Joint Line to Castle Rock! ========================= 1. At the south end of the Littleton Trench, CP 5902 is leading the train south on Main 2. 2. While the lighting wasn't great, I couldn't resist passing up a nice elevated shot (from the Titan Road overpass) looking down on the train. 3. Just south of the town of Louviers, the train passes over a creek that hasn't seen any action lately. 4. After receiving a new track warrant (with authority further south), the train throttles up as it round the curve into Sedalia. It sounded absolutely phenomenal!
Utah Spartan and a Smurf! Continue with the Spartan cab theme, here are a few more shots from back in Denver at BNSF's yard. If you haven't seen the blue "Smurf" units that BNSF has on their roster, you can see one here. BNSF traded in some switchers to the leaser GATX. They got 11 GP38AC (of Conrail lineage) in exchange. The paint was in good shape, so rather than repaint them, BNSF just added their image to them! ========================= 5. A Utah Railway GP38-2 (cleverly disguised as a GP35) sits, waiting for I'm not sure what! 6. Lastly, a rebuilt GP30 and a BNSF "Smurf" GP38AC sit together near the fueling tracks. ========================= All the shots from the chase are available here. Have a great day.
Amen to that. I live in St. Paul, MN. near the BNSF mainline between St. Paul and Minneapolis and am very tired of the endless parade of Dash-9's and AC-4400's. Having grown up in Rockford, Il, with the IC, I grew tired of seeing nothing but SD-40-2's and GP-40's. It was kind of exciting when CN bought them out and also the WC because of the variety of types that came through town, including the never seen G.E.'s. I have never seen a standard cab unit here on the BNSF. Today I look forward to seeing the U.P. come through with older units, and sometimes on the CPR.
Yep, a GP35 deturboed, 645 power assemblies installed, derated to 2000 HP. Much like MP's rebuild of 17 GP35s was. Sounds like a regular GP38. Now, I wonder what it was doing that far east.............unless it was being borrowed from the Utah. Nice shots, BTW! We still have Spartan-cab diesels here on the UP and BNSF in Muskogee, all four-axle jobs used in locals (UP uses theirs for the turn to Tulsa, BNSF handles local customers, esp. the Georgia-Pacific plant).
Drive over to Northtown yard, there are BNSF standard cabs everywhere, on the switch power, hump power, MOW power and all the Locals (Hinckley Local, Monty Local, Union job).
Nitce catch of the Spartans! The Utah Rwy 2006 is a rebuilt D&RGW unit in it's hometown. Great stuff! Keep it coming!
I used to get a lot of Spartans on NS... they were a hold out on the Spartan cab, with SD70's and Dash 9's delivered that way. But alas, they too fell into the wide cab frenzy.
