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Caption: Earlier in the afternoon I shot a wicked (in retrospect) CN 435 and back then, it was just another CN powered train. Since the SD40-2's have become a real rarity on Canadian class 1's the power is now classic and highly sought after by fans. But it wasn't the catch of the day, heck I didn't even really note it as worthy of a mention. If you clicked the 435 shot link above and seen how many of us were out that day - there were tonnes of us out, it was that rich, good stuff every hour... and about two freight trains an hour to boot.
Arguably this M390 might not be the best train of the day (depends who you ask) but I'm really thrilled to have the SD40-2's - since they are in fact my favourite all time engine. A pair of BNSF SD40-2's today is unheard of in run-through service, let alone leading. What has BNSF done to their sd40-2 fleet - any left? if yes, used on what? Please comment below, with thanks. I really don't spend time following the western railways so I just don't know the status of their roster. Cheers!
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A great shot! I always loved foreign power in the lead. The company did not like to have the leading as some of them were not equipped with “reset safety control”. My co workers were not so thrilled with foreign power leading and often if they were coming off the shop track at Mac Yrd and they saw that they had a foreign unit leading they would call the trainmaster or diesel shop and have the power turned. Union rules said that CN power must lead whenever possible.
As for BNSF SD40/40-2′s they still have quite a few on the roster.
Here is a link, updated in July 2017
https://www.thedieselshop.us/BNSF.HTML
Wow.
BNSF still has a good amount of SD40-2s, in the 1500, 1600, 1700, 1800 and 1900 series. They were renumbered to make room for more GEVOs. The two pictured are sadly dead. Occasionally BNSF SD40-2s will go on mainline trains (manifest, grain, etc.)
Majority of BNSF SD40-2′s are now delegated to local and yard service. Galesburg had a plethora of SD40′s for trimmer jobs, hump sets and general yard work.
I remember this train on this given day as well. Saw it at Copetown. The fans were on high alert this day for sure.
Another shot from 2006. I still have some to pull out from that year. In my opinion it was the best year for trains…particularly on CN.
Geez I was right net to you for this one as well. SD40-2′s are pretty rare everywhere I seem to go on the west end of BNSF, CA,AZ,NM,MT,ID,WA.
Thanks Joe – what’s a Trimmer job? if you google it you’d think you’d be working for the “green leaf” division of the LCBO..
Matt that’s great
In the instance of Galesburg where I photographed this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/93850525@N02/34405300994/in/album-72157681808009264/
The trimmer jobs are the trains that pull down cars from the yard and classify them to build trains. Pretty impressive to see/hear. Sometimes 100+ cars on the drawbar and only 13-14 have their air brakes tied on to the unit.
Actually, the trimmer jobs at Mac Yrd at East or West or the local hump did not use air in any cars as cars that are humped have no air in them. The jobs just couple up the tracks and shove them into the outbound tracks for the car dept to inspect and couple up the air hoses.
Thanks! Never heard of Trimmer jobs, I guess I’m not one to watch hump yard action then.
Phil..do you not have train to drive..somewhere
? yet?