Western Railroad Discussion > ATSF 666, ridin with the devil

We got called Fri Jan 25 for the G-DDCKAL9-21 grain train out of MSLA at 1740. Consist was the BNSF 4734, BNSF 988 and the ATSF 666. The trip was pretty uneventful except for a few loose rocks near Quinns that knocked the plug out of the slide fence and caused a little restricted speed running. Lots of big fluffy snowflakes and rain but much better to be on the train than the highways. We lost a headlight in the lead unit and had the headlight circuit breaker trip a few times after but tied up 10 hrs 05 minutes on duty.

The return trip was on the H-PASKCK1-26 on duty at Yardley 1/26/02 1940 hrs. The consist was the ATSF 666, BNSF 988 and BNSF 4734. Again, it was another rather uneventful trip through the snow and rain with one handline of the 10th sub main switch at Paradise and 8 hrs and 40 minutes on duty.

So the ATSF 666 runs well, pulls well and has a clean toilet. All of the religious graffitti which has adorned the cab and nose has been painted out by roho forces probably to the chagrin of those employees who were uncomfortable "riding with the devil".

So I survived the round trip with the 'posessed' locomotive! HA, HA, HA, HA, I laugh at the devil! Now is that tempting the fates or what?

arbfbe

FBE,
Glad to hear you survived the trip both ways with the 666. I'm surprised there is so little snow back in western Montana. We had 3" fall here by this morning but a lot of it has melted off now. Another batch is forcast for tonight. Sounds as if traffic levels are good on the MRL and I hope that continues throughout the year. I take it by now the semaphores are probably down between Eddy and Woodlin.

Brian Ambrose
Renton, WA

All -
I handed the 666 off to FBE at Missoula and we never had any trouble with it either. But we did have trouble with 988 coming out of Mullan Tunnel. Unit dropped back to idle after sensing the outside air intake was "too hot". Well, duh. All that hot exhuast in the hole! Another better idea by GE. Just had to "reset" and she loaded up again.

Brian A. Yes, the blades between Eddy and T-Falls were removed Jan09. Getting snowed on today, colder weather on the way.
Dave in Missoula

Brian,

There was snow here but a couple of days of rain and it mostly washed away. The blades came down Jan 9, 2002 and the stantions came down Thursday or Friday of last week. I saved you a set of warrants announcing the demise if you want to send me your street address again, I'll pass along a copy. <arburnsfbe@earthlink.net> is me new electronic home.

arbfbe

Well, the <> trick didn't work with the e-mail link so here it is the old fashioned way, arburnsfbe@earthlink.net

Thanks fbe. My address has been sent to you via E-mail!

Brian

Here It is, Clean and on the prowl... I had more than one crewman in SoCal, and two in AZ tell me they got the shakes when they found this one on the point. With some folks it is more than just an "Old Wives Tale" about the supernatural influence of the numbers.
AL

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LOL I had the ATSF666 on the point outas KC and set it out in Lincoln at the diesel shop, 2 days latter we me the ATSF 666 on its way to MT leading the consist, the ironey is we met them when the were sitting at the end of double track MP 66.6

My favorite GE. I always thought it would be the engine to have in the middle of the night with injector problems. 5 to 10 foot of flame shooting out the stack. It would look the devil himself coming down the track.

Umm... does anybody know what kind of ..er.. horns 666 has?

northerner wrote:
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> Umm... does anybody know what kind of ..er.. horns 666 has?

I'm beginning to feel hypmotized.

CSX also has a unit #666 - a GE C60AC.

On the day it was delivered, CSX had washouts down south and at least two derailments. More recently CSX #666 had a bad engine fire that scorched most of the paint off of the sides of the engine compartment. It was then partially repainted. The difference is quite easy to see because the repainted section has the older CSX (all blue) letters whereas the as-delivered C60ACs have the yellow letters (with blue outline). A photo of CSX #666 was just posted a few days ago over on the eastern board at:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?f=2&amp;i=58809&amp;t=58805

- BCM

albowen wrote: el diablo sf-666
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i like the nickname: el diablo
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now headed for kansas city, maybe, hopefully they will work it out west.