Nice looking units.... not too radiacal of a departure from the current units, but still good looking. Harold
Hemi- According to what management tells me, no. They will still be around. Backup to the SD70ACe fleet. And also used as leasers, or other assignments. MRL is quite frugal. Even units with catastrophic failures don't get chopped up fast. Many have come back into service again! Mostly just badly fire damaged, and major wrecks are junked. Boxcab E50
Does anyone know if they are running it in revenue service yet? I'll be in Helena tomorow, so i'm hopeing to catch some pics. Thanks
Swung by CEECO today on the way to the hobby shop and there was the 4305 in all it's glory! The paint on it was so fresh, you could smell it out on the roadside!! The 4306 and the 4313 are sitting in primer still and another primer unit is over in the BNSF yard, but can't make out the unit number. Awesome engines!
Don't know what they're doing. Heard they've, (4300, 4301), left Missoula, and headed further east. Helena? Livingston? Boxcab E50
Although there was bad weather, some brave souls were out this weekend. Am waiting to see a picture or two. #4300 was used to pull a three car passenger train. One of the MRL VP's was given a special to honor his retirement. Boxcab E50
I have yet to catch it. Last sunday I hung around Helena for 9 hours and only saw 3 trains and no SD70Ace. Maybe next weekend I'll try agian.
They've both been at least as far east as Livingston. Dunno where they are right now. Am guessing Missoula. I have yet to catch them myself. May not for a while, with gas $$$$$. Meanwhile, more should start showing up on home rails soon. This week possibly. So chances will get better. Boxcab E50
I was in Missoula sunday and saw that three car special sittin in the yard there, but no SD70Ace anywhere.
Pictures any one? There are some on the old bnsfpix.com or rostershots.com but they cost to view now so lets see some over here. Steve
I had hoped to get down there last weekend. For the swap meet. But my wife's car quit. So, Sunday I fixed it... Am surprised by all the notes seen everywhere. But the few photos from all those out chasing! Boxcab E50
We are just train-watchers - for fun. Sunday, 9/25/05, on the way over the Bozeman pass, we saw an unusual sight - an empty east-bound coal-train was just sitting at a place where there was no siding. When we arrived in Livingston, MT, we saw another east-bound train just sitting in the yard. We saw it move a few yards to get past the crossing, and then stop. We drove around to the front of the train, and there were no locomotives They had moved backwards on a siding into the yard. We thought that perhaps a BNSF unit needed repairs and was being replaced with MRL units. But when we drove back into the yard, we saw what was really happening. Apparently, two SD70ACe’s were being delivered. They were being dropped of at Livingston, and then the mixed-freight train was taking off again. We watched 4305 and 4306 chug back to the MRL shop, and took a few photos. What a stroke of luck for us. On our first day out with a roster and photos (to begin our new phase of identifying locomotives), we saw, by accident, two newly painted SD70ACe’s! We’d only heard about them a couple of weeks before!
Hegna- Welcome aboard! Nice to see another fellow Montanan here! Keep us posted on what you see happening. Maybe some day, we can convince you to take a few pictures. I'm not doing a lot of extra driving, with gas prices up.... Boxcab E50
The other night I was watching tv and a commercial came on and in the background there was a coal train and on the headend was two of the new ones with the "W" on the long hood!! I can't remember what the ad was about, but I'll keep an eye out for it.
