TRONA RAILWAY?

Tonight I was driving around the back areas downtown with the wife. We do that sometimes to kill time.

So anyway, I hear something on the joint line and it's a BNSF train, but the second unit is some sort of SD35 or 45 with #6408 and what looks like the word Trona covered by some sort of patch and railway. It was red and white like a GM&O unit. any idea what this was?

I'm off to google land to see if I can find anything on it.


Thanks in advance.

 

Wicki to the rescue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trona_Railway

I think what I saw was a sd45.

 

when in doubt search railimages:


when I saw it tonight the HLCX logo was worn off.

 

I believe these units are actually SD40M-2 rebuild units. Trona had a handful on lease. Since then they have been returned to leasor Helm and had HLCX markings applied. They are currently in service all over the place.

If I recall correctly, Trona replaced them with a motley group of ex SP SD40T-2 and ex UP SD40-2 units.

 

Technically...what you saw is a SD40-2. It may look like a SD45-s, internally it is a SD40-2.

Prior to 1993 the Trona rostered three Baldwin AS-616's that spent their time switching around the plants at the very end of their railroad. The Trona handled their mainline freights with leased Southern Pacific power. On 1 February 1993 the Trona replaced all of the Baldwins plus all of the leased SP locomotives with six of the units like the one you saw. The six all started out at AT&SF units; Helm Financial acquired/obtained the six, and they had them rebuilt to SD40-2's by replacing the 20-cylinder prime mover with a 16-cylinder version.

The six units served the Trona well, but the shortline elected not to renew their lease when it expired a couple years ago. The Trona now operates with a fleet of second- or third- hand SD units, all of which they own instead of lease. Helm took the six SD40-2's back, and they have been mostly on BN rails since.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

 

Wow, I'm racking my brain now. Think they either went to a place called SMS or Johnson Terminal or something. There are pics around of at least one in service post Trona but they are probably 3 or 4 years old now.

 

SMS has one AS-616 still operational. I think they have one or two others that don't work.

 

thanks for the info. I see enough BNSF and UP to choke a mule. I always like seeing older stuff with weird paint schemes.

I was just guessing as the thing rolled by, what it was. I noticed the 3 axle trucks and thought "Cool an SD unit!". I honestly can't tell you what is what on most diesels. Well, If it was an older unit like a RS11 I'd be able to tell you what it was, but the stuff I like doesn't run anymore. I'll settle for some older SD's though.

 

About Trona's AS-616's...

They has three of them, #52, #53, #54. Trona bought the #52 new in 1954...it stands as the last AS-616 Baldwin built. Baldwin built the #53 as Southern Pacific #5294, and Trona picked it up in 1960. The #54 had the most varied history, as Baldwin initially built it for Kaiser Steel/Eagle Mountain Railroad in 1952. When Kaiser bought their fleet of U30C's from GE in 1973 this unit went north to Gray's Harbor, WA, where it hauled logs as Rayonier #14. Trona picked it up in 1985.

Trona sold all three Baldwins to Johnston Terminal in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in November 1992. Johnston Terminal re-sold all three, plus a S-12 they had, to SMS Rail Services in at the end of July 1995. Jim Boyd's three book series on Baldwin diesels lists the #54 as operating on SMS as their #554. The #52 (SMS #552) was on SMS property, but still in full Trona paint and non-operating, while the #53 (SMS #553) remained in Muskogee. This information is now more than four years old...anyone have any updates?

Trona actually dieselized in 1949 with two Baldwin DT6-6-2000's, which were a unique locomotive...imagine two AS-616 long hoods mounted on a long frame with the cab in the center, and that is about what these looked like. Trona sold the pair to Peabody Coal in 1973, which is about the time they started leasing SP power to handle their mainline trains.

A recent discussion on one board or another tended to indicate that the #554 remains as the last AS-616 doing real revenue work today. There are a few operational models in museums, but no others out doing actual honest work.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

 

As for Trona itself, the town, it's an interesting place to drive through, on the way to Death Valley from Southern California. To our untrained eye it looked like a bit of a ghost town, clearly a one-company town. And always an eclectic mix of power in their yard!

 

I've seen that unit in the pic on CSX before. Really a neat catch!

So, if the unit(s) rebuilt as SD40-3's for Trona are in the lease fleets, what is the Trona using for power now?

 

And Peabody retired them in 1977. They didn't last long, though they did get Peabody yellow: http://yardlimit.railfan.net/baldwindiesels/peabody/index.html

 

Thanks for that info Jeff. I was always under the assumption that all the AS-616's that ITT Rayonier had were cut up at the Crane Creek shops around the mid-late 80's. My dad hauled logs into Crane Creek around 1985 and has some of the last photos taken of the equipment at Crane Creek. The rail line by that time was mostly torn up and everything was at Crane Creek sitting waitng their final fate with the scrappers torch.

 

cwwrman-

The #14 stands alone as the only ITT Rayonier Baldwin from the Gray's harbor operation that made it out in one piece. The Escanaba & Lake Superior purchased the other four, stripped them of all useable parts, and then scrapped them on site.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV