SP SD45T-2 6819 chills in the shed at the California State Railroad Museum. Your's truly and the little hostler get in the way
From last week's Montana Rail Link 25th Anniversary. SD40-2XR 260 & 261, O-DIXMIS1-05 crossing Marent Trestle:
Still testing EMD SD70ACes on the ATN and Engineer Jerry DeBene has 165 cars rolling north across the Coosa River near Ohatchee AL heading to Gadsden Yard.
Ken! You were holding out on us! What a neat shot. Actually, everyone had some great shots here so far. :happy:
Jerry, with so much of your time spent living with those elegant beasties, I'm afraid you won't want to associate with us lowly mortals any more. BTW, that is one gorgeous photo, beautifully framed and lighted.
No worries Hank! I have been limited in my time lately being on-call to run these, but it sure is worth it......these are perhaps the best locomotives I have ever operated. My prediction.....EMD is going to best GE finally with these. These are what EMD calls 'basic' Tier 3 models. After the first of the year we are getting Tier 4 models that EMD say are superior to this version. I dont see how.....these that we have rock. I had 3 pull a heavy train and generate over 400,000lbs of tractive effort from a dead stop on a grade over 2%. The 165 car train was over 10,000 tons and over 10,000 ft long. They had me isolate the middle unit so only the lead and trailing unit were pulling. The middle was set up for dynamic only and they pulled it with ease and I never used the air. Slowed and stopped with just dynamics. Awesome, awesome, awesome units!
Imagine getting stopped at a crossing for this monster.....LOL [video=youtube;tYDDzsFQSjc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYDDzsFQSjc&feature=share&list=ULtYDDzsFQSjc[/video]
This weekly topic has been bringing out some really nice and interesting photography. Jim- There are a few more photos of that excursion on my web site.
Jerry, was that the 10,000' drag you mentioned earlier? Taking nearly 10 minutes to pass the camera meant you were doing only 12-13 mph. That speed surprises me because I thought the ATN was certified Class IV out on the mains. Those CSCX hoppers looked so shiny, were they new? UhOh, I just read your answer to Ken, but any form of revenue for ATN keeps you on the payroll a day longer.
We need to clarify something here. ProgressIVE Rail is not in the car demolition business. Progress Rail, A Caterpillar, company does that work. Joe Fehr Progressive Rail Specialized Logistics A Progressive Rail Company.
The Colorado Railroad Museum ran 346 today. The city of Boulder had something going with us to run a train on this Friday. Original plans were to use #4, but since they had 346 warm from its annuals yesterday they decided to use the steam. You shoulda seen the faces of the volunteers when we showed up and this was running! Sorry for the poor photo quality, I went up there without a camera expecting a normal Friday work day. What a surprise I got! Not only did they run 346, but they also allowed some museum volunteers run it. They ran out of time before I got a chance to run it, but I got a rain check to run it on a latter date.
