Western Railroad Discussion > Squarecab CSX SD40-3 through Cajon, Utah bound

I have every other Monday off work and fortunately, today was the off day. I am also fortunate to have good friends and two of them gave me a heads up on a pretty unusual high/wide wind generator move today on the UP. Even more unusual was the lead locomotive, one of CSXT's SD40-3 rebuilds with the crazy looking cab, a long way from home. Train symbol is SNOGDW-21 (Special-New Orleans-Garfield, UT-Wind) with CSXT 4023/UP 5439/ 1 load and 3 empties. I did a search here and there are a lot of haters of the new cab design. Like it or not, the rarity of one of these things this far west made it look pretty good to me.

1) The train on UP's Palmdale cut-off at Silverwood preparing to cross-over onto BNSF trackage to Daggett.

2) A rolling roster shot of the beast.

3) Earlier down at Colton, the GE-built generator or turbine, not really sure what's under the tarp.

The train left Colton around 10:30AM so I'm not sure what time or where it will hit daylight, hopefully someone else can get it.

OYW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/12 20:00 by oyw.

---

---

---

The words "cheap" and "ugly" come to mind on that SD40-3 cab and nose. Another word is "why"?

Hardly "cheap" by any means. Its a modern spartan cab with far more room and integrated heating/cooling systems and full EAB equipment

Great catch, Bob.

Dang, wish I had known... I could have gotten out there today.

Spungebob Square cab what are you doing in the desert.? Your gonna dry out.!!!

Son or grandson of GP-30

Have fun, be safe,
Bruce "Doc" Jones
Sierra Madre CA

I remember crews using duct tape to seal the front door on EMD 'spartan cabs' due to wind/snow, etc leaking around the weather stripping. NS has their new cabs they are putting on rebuilt SD-60s that are not real photogenic so it makes sense. I'm sure the crews riding in these units in bad weather appreciate the change, regardless of how it looks.

Looks like what would happen if you mated a CF7 and an SD40-2...

Nice going Bob!

I wonder if that GE item is headed to San Onfre's nuclear power plants--they've had some big issues lately...

billmeeker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looks like what would happen if you mated a CF7
> and an SD40-2...


Could not have been said better!

coach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if that GE item is headed to San Onfre's
> nuclear power plants--they've had some big issues
> lately...


Heading north , I think not

Ya boy!!

Altough an improvement inside I'm sure, the new spartan cab on the -40's will never look natural looking.

The cab/nose also meets current strength requirements for collisions etc. The as built cab/nose does not

NWRailfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hardly "cheap" by any means. Its a modern spartan
> cab with far more room and integrated
> heating/cooling systems and full EAB equipment

I have a gut feeling the best looking "new" cabs on all these SD40-2 rebuilds around the country will be seen on CP ECO's about to emerge from Progress Rail in Mayfield, KY. ;-)

Bill Miller
Galt, ON

I still say that you pay people to run trains for you!!

Neat photos but wow those cabs look odd.

CSX: next time give me a call. My company specializes in tricky design problems that work, are producable on budget and look good.

Z

alco539 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Spungebob Square cab what are you doing in the
> desert.? Your gonna dry out.!!!

Wish I was in SoCal to chase that Sponge Bob! High & wide trains cause all sorts of havoc with nervous dispatchers and trains stopping or going real slow during meets. Would have been a great day out on the Cima Sub in the Mojave Desert.

Except for the angle around the numberboards, I actually think the SD40-3's look pretty good. Even if I thought it was ugly, it would be no different than other ugly locomotives I like: CF-7's, SD60M "Triclops", BL-2's, BQ23-7's, U-50's...

alco539 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Spungebob Square cab what are you doing in the
> desert.? Your gonna dry out.!!!


LoL.......