Western Railroad Discussion > Why Did Trona Give Up Its SD45-2's?

Why did Trona let their SD45-2's go to a leaser? Did they sell them or was the lease up? Did they get any replacement engines to cover for these lost?

I was up there a few months ago and they said they had purchased enough used units from UP for less then a Million, however as the lease was up on the Helms units and they wanted many Million's from Trona to keep the units.

Simple as a lease expire factor and the fact that they bought seven new surplus UP/SP locomotives, all proven 3000HP SD40-2's/T-2's. This was a purchase made in 2002 (I believe), so the six Trona SD45-2's spent the last two years from 2002-2004 riding out their 15 year lease.

Trona Railway's Current Roster (10 units, 9 active):

TRC 2002 SD40T-2 (ex-UP 8708; nee-SP 8505)
TRC 2003 SD40R (ex-SP 7357 (Kodachrome paint), nee-SP SD40 8421)
TRC 2004 SD40T-2 (ex-UP 8717; nee-SP 8517)
TRC 2005 SD40T-2 (ex-UP 8756; nee-SP 8541)
TRC 2006 SD40-2 (ex-UP 3719)
TRC 2007 SD40-2 (ex-UP 3567)
TRC 2008 SD40-2 (ex-UP 3720)
TRC 2008 SD40-2 (ex-UP 3720)
TRC 2009 SD40-2 (ex-UP 8997; ex-UP B4316; ex-UP 4316, nee-MP 3316) stored for parts?
TRC 3007 SD40-2 (nee CP 5710)


It was mid-April of 2004 when their lease with Trona expired and UP took them in as lease units for Helm. First of the Trona SD45-2's without a Helm patched 62XX/64XX number (three of them) were assigned for the first week or so out of Yermo in and out of Vegas on the Arden local. Then during the first week of May in 2004, three of these guys, the 3003, 3006, 3001 went to helper service in San Luis Obispo via L.A.. Within a day or two, there quickly became only two assigned Trona 45-2's on Cuesta as the helper crew complained about there not being any air conditioning on these units, so a standard nose SD60 replaced one of them.

Then a month later, these three Trona units were cycled south to Taylor Diesel in L.A. to become patched HLCX6242, 6243, 6244 and all returned as a nice patched Trona 45-2 trio as the helpers at SLO again.

6242: ex-TRONA 3001/ATSF 5712
6243: ex-TRONA 3003/ATSF 5710
6244: ex-TRONA 3006/CSXT 8959/SBD 8959/SCL 2054
6409: ex-HLCX 6245/TRONA 3002/ATSF 5713
6246: ex-TRONA 3004/ATSF 5714
6247: ex-TRONA 3005/ATSF 5711

Sometime in the summer of 2004, these untis started roaming across the UP system on and off the road. A few were based out of Roseville for a while, one just went south out of Roseville this past Saturday trailing on a grain train.


Timeline of these units with photos below:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,718289
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,725204
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,724469
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,727139
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,736594
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,744182
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,775525,775536#msg-775536
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,784681
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,785377
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,912120

Hope this all helps:

-Ryan aka "espeeboy"
on the ex-WP Oakland Sub MP11.2



stretch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why did Trona let their SD45-2's go to a leaser?
> Did they sell them or was the lease up? Did they
> get any replacement engines to cover for these
> lost?

Who is currently leasing these units? They seem to be on CSX a lot now days.

UP has some roaming the system. I've seen several in NLR.

espeeboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Simple as a lease expire factor and the fact that
> they bought seven new surplus UP/SP locomotives,
> all proven 3000HP SD40-2's/T-2's. This was a
> purchase made in 2002 (I believe), so the six
> Trona SD45-2's spent the last two years from
> 2002-2004 riding out their 15 year lease.
>
> Trona Railway's Current Roster (10 units, 9
> active):
>
> TRC 2002 SD40T-2 (ex-UP 8708; nee-SP 8505)
> TRC 2003 SD40R (ex-SP 7357 (Kodachrome paint),
> nee-SP SD40 8421)
> TRC 2004 SD40T-2 (ex-UP 8717; nee-SP 8517)
> TRC 2005 SD40T-2 (ex-UP 8756; nee-SP 8541)
> TRC 2006 SD40-2 (ex-UP 3719)
> TRC 2007 SD40-2 (ex-UP 3567)
> TRC 2008 SD40-2 (ex-UP 3720)
> TRC 2008 SD40-2 (ex-UP 3720)
> TRC 2009 SD40-2 (ex-UP 8997; ex-UP B4316; ex-UP
> 4316, nee-MP 3316) stored for parts?
> TRC 3007 SD40-2 (nee CP 5710)


Good info... So are any of these actually painted in the Trona colors? I haven't been out there in a while. Trona was always a nice switch from the typical stuff in the area. I hope they plan to paint at least some in the Trona colors.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Featuring the NEW TrainTenna LP Gain RR Scanner Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

Funny this topic came up. I just saw one of the ex-Trona SD45-2s in Oakland a couple hours ago on my commute home from work. It's the first time in about a year that I have seen one.

neilgross Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Funny this topic came up. I just saw one of the
> ex-Trona SD45-2s in Oakland a couple hours ago on
> my commute home from work. It's the first time in
> about a year that I have seen one.

Trailing on the NB MWCPD (MWCPT?) right? Missed it earlier today but heard it blow by my work...