Nostalgia & History > UP's first five SD70Ms, in # order

It's hard to think of this scene as nostalgic, but it was over 15 years ago. I've been keeping an eye on the Bailey Yard web cam in North Platte, NE and it looks like UP 4000 is in a storage line there. On one of it's first revenue runs, Union Pacific SD70M 4000 leads 4001, 4002, 4003 and 4004 eastbound south of Chappell, NE on May 27, 2000.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/15 20:44 by Sterk.

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wern't they sold for  like $2000 a month?  1200?  in the blockbuster deal  miss the red stripes 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/15 22:31 by dan.

I remember it was so nice to see the wings on the nose again.

Adam

Hopefully the 4000 gets preserved.   As more time goes by, this batch of SD70M's may be looked back upon the same way we look back on SD40-2's.

That's a great pace shot! 

Not to be overly picky, just factual, but these are not the first SD70M's on the roster.  UP acquired 25 of them along with the SP.  In fact, since those SP units were the last SD70's that EMD had built, one of them was sent back to LaGrange for EMD to use to build them "just like the SP units".  After the new UP units were delivered, we found out that EMD had upgraded the onboard electronics and the fault log downloading we had built based on the SP units wouldn't work on the new UP units.

Shortly after the SD 70Ms arrived various problems started showing up with the electronics. I was working the West Colton to Yermo Pool. When we would arrive east bound at Yermo, or the Las Vegas to Yermo Pool would arrive westbound, there was an EMD tech at Yermo who would change out the circuit boards that were causing the problems and log the corrections on his computer and add that information into the holder where the blue card and other information is held. He had a supply of these parts in his rental car and there were other techs at other locations doing the same thing. He knew what engines had been retro fitted and those that had not as the trains were comming in. After a while he was doing less and less as the fleet was corrected. They worked real good after the retro fits.

Great photos, thanks for sharing! That pacing shot is awesome.

Al Seever
Phoenix, AZ

Fredo Wrote:
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> Shortly after the SD 70Ms arrived various problems
> started showing up with the electronics. I was
> working the West Colton to Yermo Pool. When we
> would arrive east bound at Yermo, or the Las Vegas
> to Yermo Pool would arrive westbound, there was an
> EMD tech at Yermo who would change out the circuit
> boards that were causing the problems and log the
> corrections on his computer and add that
> information into the holder where the blue card
> and other information is held. He had a supply of
> these parts in his rental car and there were other
> techs at other locations doing the same thing. He
> knew what engines had been retro fitted and those
> that had not as the trains were comming in. After
> a while he was doing less and less as the fleet
> was corrected. They worked real good after the
> retro fits.

You wouldn't like them now, Fred. Not only are they pretty much worn out, but most of the ones I've had lately have inboard facing cameras. You wouldn't be able to "moon" anyone anymore. Oh wait, that was on the "E" units.-BMT  

If the things were any good they would have put them on a license plate!!

Out

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Great shots! I remember when you had to keep track of which ones were flags or flares or whatever. For some reason, I was just looking at a build date on one of these, and realized they were 15 years old. I love new unit shots like this.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/15 17:02 by halfmoonharold.