Western Railroad Discussion > former King-o-the-Road

A routine yard snoop in Sterling, CO netted me a few images one might expect in a yard with regular switch (or whatever) jobs. I didn’t even get outta the car, but as I shot the 1966 I realized it was equipped for remote control. A sad digression for an engine once considered “front-line” power. After a long, glorious road service life this old geezer now has to suffer the indignity of being led around a yard by a panel of push-buttons worn by a person walking around on the ground.

I guess it’s better than rusting away in some deadline. Or worse, being converted into a bunch of razor blades…

1. Current young road warrior BNSF 8057 soaks up some afternoon sun in the presence of…

2. …his elder, the former road warrior BNSF 1966.
(2 photos taken in Sterling, CO on July 31, 2019)

Thanks for remembering the 70s ~ 80s!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/19 11:04 by santafe199.

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At least the BNSF 1966 looks quite spiffy.

Larry

Nice one Lance,
BNSF does seem to keep their power much cleaner that some of the others, ie. UP.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Many BNSF units are "Remote Control Equipped" but very few are actually operated by remote control.
I have seen many, many more "Remote Control" units with crews in their cab then I have seen being operated by an operator with their belt pack.
 

 It appesrs that in the yard in Belen N M , there is more than one SD40-2  pulling yard duty regularly .

Built as Colorado & Southern 911 in March, 1972 which was only a couple months into the production run of the -2 line.   BN/BNSF is defintely getting their moneys worth out of the unit.

I agree she looks great so hopefully her inside is just as well maintained.  

Nice shots Lance. Relatively very clean looking power. Sterling is a nice place to catch loaded coal trains, empties are doubled up thru the old C&S line thru Boulder, Longmont, Berthoud, Loveland, Fort Collins and Wellington onto Cheyenne. Eight engines and two lengths of empty coal cars make drivers sit and fume. Would they rather drive thru close to 1,000 tractor trailers?

Don Allender

Nice Lance!

SouthWest RailCams
CA, NM, CO, TX, AZ
https://SouthWestRailCams.com

No shame there, that old SD is still working and looking very sharp!

Posted from Android

Yard job in Amarillo was instructed to fetch a stalled coal load. They had two SD40-2s. They said we only have switch engines.
I got on the radio and told them five switch engines used to pull these coal loads.