Western Railroad Discussion > Ancient dash-two pumpkins (on Halloween)...

…they say age is relative

Ask just about any railfan my (retirement) age if he/she loves an SD-40-2 and you’ll probably get a pointedly blank stare that might indicate: “what, are ya nuts??”. In our prime railfanning years we only had about a ‘hunnert-eleventy gazillion’ of ‘em to shoot. Step back another generation and ask the same question about F-units & GP-7s and you’d probably get the same general reaction.

The average railfan youth of today would no doubt get excited at the idea of seeing a solid consist of SD-40-2s: “Oh wow, lookie here, 2 PURE dash-twos from the old days!” But back in 1984 (30 years ago) my now over-the-hill cronies would have said: “oh gawd, just another couple of those #&$@ dash-2s!”

I shot this pair of units the other day over in BNSF’s small yard in Abilene. They were sitting quiet & mute, tied up on the local. It wasn’t so very long ago (try: 30 years) that these motors would have been in up-front, mainline service. I actually caught myself thinking hmmm… this is a neat catch. In the year 2044 (30 years from now) I wonder who is going to come along and stand in my same spot and say: “Oh wow, lookie here! Two PURE Gevos from the OLD days!!!”…

1. BNSF 1664 on the Abilene ~ Newton local, aka: #02. This SD-40-2 powered train will go to work later and travel over the same piece of the old Santa Fe that, once upon a time, used to see friendly-faced Fs & Dilworth’s ugly ducklings almost exclusively. Photo date: October 31, 2014

Thanks for thinking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/14 07:24 by santafe199.

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They just had to install RV a/c units on the cab roof there didn't they, ill still take them.. Plus these are painted in the best BNSF paint scheme great catch !

Nice Shot!

Nice pic!!!

Nice shot.

~Ryan