Western Railroad Discussion > Santa Ana winds at the Santa Ana River.

As everyone in So. Cal. today knows, the Santa Ana winds have started kicking up again. Although they play havock with many things, they do make for some nice clear blue skies. Today we were stopped short of the Santa Ana River Bridge at Arlington, waiting for the Santa Fe (excuse me- BNSF) to take us at West Riverside and onto the connector at Mount Vernon. I had a few minutes so decided to take a few shots. So here's the results. Train was the KTSMN2-17.
I have a question for those in the know. The 3rd unit was the EMD 9033, SD60, lease unit. Anyone know if it was one of their original demo units from the early 80's? All the blue card had for renumbering was the 9033 and was built in 1984. Thanks.-Brian

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Hello,

I believe this was one of the OAKWAY Leasing units that were leased to the BN starting back in the early eighties for coal train service. Once the lease was up, they reverted back into the EMD lease fleet(as I believe OAKWAY was part of EMD). They still roam around in the BNSF coal train pool but stray occasionally on other services.

From what i understand the Oakways are still under lease to BNSF. EMD 9000-9049 were on lease an additional 5 years (as of 3 years ago), and EMD 9050-9099 for additional 10 years (as of 3 years ago). I have been seeing quite a bit of BNSF power on the UP in the past couple of weeks due to HP payback here in the Pacific Northwest. As for EMD 9000 series SD60's, they are all too common on the Centralia, WA and Boardman, OR coal trains, which both traverse Mullan and Bozeman Passes on the MRL on their journey from Laurel, MT to Sandpoint, ID.