Western Railroad Discussion > Utah Rly MK50-3 units Stratton, CO

In 2001 the Utah Railway tested and later acquired all 6 MK5000C units from Wabtec, the owner of MotivePower Industries. However, after one year of operation, all units were out of service due to problems with the main bearings on the Caterpillar 3612 diesel engine and Kato main alternator. The units were returned to Wabtec and had the CAT 3612 and Kato main alternator removed and replaced with an EMD AR11 main alternator. At the same time, the engine blocks were replaced by EMD 3500 Horsepower 16-645F3B diesel engines from 5 retired Union Pacific EMD SD50 and 1 retired Union Pacific EMD GP50 locomotives. The 6 units were reclassed with the designation MK50-3 and were back in service with the Utah Railway.  All six units were moved from Utah to the Kyle RR (operates in Kansas and eastern Colorado on ex-Rock Island RR) in Spring 2017.

Utah Railway lettered power 5003 & 5002 were just east of Stratton, CO, 12 July 2020, on westbound train (Goodland, KS - Limon, CO).

No sound video at Stratton, CO, Sunday, 12 July 2020.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/20 05:18 by cozephyr.

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I'm sure this gets brought up with every shot from Eastern Colorado that gets posted, but wow that is some flat country

It gets a few bumps as you head East, big hole out by Goodland, hills later.

Out 

Nice video, I miss seeing those units here in Utah.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

As a Colorado native who left Colorado because of the social and political cesspool the metro areas of the state had become, I do not miss those metro areas at all.  That said, I still have a soft spot for the Eastern Colorado Plains, where small towns, ranching, and farming still hold sway.  It is becoming the last of the "real Colorado" that I grew up in that still exists.  And, as some have noted, the Colorado plains are not "flat" in more ways than one:  they, like the plains of Kansas to the east, slope ever upward in elevation toward the Front Range of the Rockies, and there are definite undulations in the plains themselves.  A good example was the old MP line east of Pueblo to Sharon Springs, Kansas.  Because it did not follow a river valley like the ATSF line east of Pueblo, the MP was a real roller coaster--as anyone who railroaded on it would tell you.  That was a significant reason the UP did not want to keep it once the whole SP/UP merger was completed.

As to the old Rock Island in eastern Colorado, I remember seeing a bunch of blue-and-white Rock Island units pulling a long grain train at a grade crossing west of Burlington, Colorado in the dark days just before "The Rock" went bankrupt.  As the train passed by me at about 15 mph, the loaded hoppers were rocking so badly that I'm sure the conductor in the cupola of the caboose could read some of the car numbers on the ends of the hoppers.  The track was that bad.