Western Railroad Discussion > Labor day finds around Phoenix.

I had planned on meeting a couple of friends trackside at Peoria, AZ for some train watching this morning. They were already there when I showed up and said the outbound local had left about 3 minutes prior. I decided this would be a perfect chance to go to Castle Hot Springs and see the BNSF and Arizona & California interchange since I've never caught it before. Ended up seeing a M-BELPHX parked at Beardsley siding waiting for the local, which was dropping off cars at El Mirage. After seeing the meet, I headed up to CHS just in time to see the swap and the ARZC head back to Parker.

1. M-BELPHX waits.
2. BNSF 516 leads the local.
3. The two mixed freights meet. Notice that BNSF 8703 has yet to be renumbered.

---

---

---

4. The M-BELPHX had a Citirail trailing.
5. After swapping trains, the ARZC departs with ARZC 4001 leading.
6. CEFX 3146

---

---

---

7. ARZC 4002.
8. ARZC 4003.
9. ARZC 4004.

Before departing, a crew member got off 4001 to realign the switch. After the train cleared the switch (near where I was), the train backed all the way to get the crew member on the ground before departing. This meant that the locomotives passed me 3 times, allowing me to take pictures and just watch them go by and listen to the sound of these old EMD 645 engines.

---

---

---

Looks like you've had a good day, nice shots!

Larry

Thanks for sharing...

With respect to BNSF 516: What determines the version of paint scheme a 4-axel unit gets nowadays? The GP60s get the single stripe and dark trucks (which I think looks sharp) and now there's this.

Is it an EMD vs. GE thing? Where it gets painted? Road switchers get a single stripe?

Posted from iPhone

DRGW5502 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for sharing...
>
> With respect to BNSF 516: What determines the
> version of paint scheme a 4-axel unit gets
> nowadays? The GP60s get the single stripe and
> dark trucks (which I think looks sharp) and now
> there's this.
>
> Is it an EMD vs. GE thing? Where it gets painted?
> Road switchers get a single stripe?
>
> Posted from iPhone

The rule has always been that wide cab units, no matter their use (except for the 960-1123 C44-9Ws and various oddballs), get Heritage II or Swoosh paint with the wide stripes and silver trucks and standard cab units get H1 or single stripe H3. As of this year, BNSF seems to prefer the single stripe paint scheme for anything used in yards or on locals, several SD60Ms and at least one GP60M have the single stripe scheme, sometimes referred to as H4. BNSF 516 was painted back in 2007 when all wide cabs still received that paint. No B40-8Ws have been painted this year, or in quite a few years and if BNSF ever does repaint another one, they will probably receive the single stripe H3 scheme.

Unit is sitting at Mobest with a bunch of other locomotives as of 15:00 local time. No public access anywhere near the CREX unit though, it is sitting directly under the sanding tower.