Western Railroad Discussion > O scale power on N scale rails?

In the fall of 1974 I spent right at 1 month working on a Santa Fe M.O.W. extra gang based in Concordia, KS. 4-axle power was absolutely all I ever saw on both my Santa Fe and the Missouri Pacific, which was the "main show in town" in those days. I don't specifically remember seeing any BN power, but if I did I'm positive it was the same 1st generation type stuff as the other two outfits.

Fast forward to 2021. The Mop is long gone, swallowed up by the KYLE in the early 1980s. And the BN ~ Santa Fe merger allowed the old BN branch down from Wymore, NE to be torn out. The same merger would allow the Santa Fe (now BNSF) line through town to become the "new main show in town". In fact, it has become a secondary main line carrying coal & grain empties north (TT west) up into Nebraska and unit grain loads south (TT east) for eventual Gulf coast export, plus the usual local traffic.

The KYLE does pretty well for itself with local agricultural-based traffic. They also bring in revenue by storing empty cars, such as privately owned coal buckets on non-used trackage in quite a few places. Now, let's revert back to 1974 or even in the 1980s when I worked through Concordia in SFe train service. 4-axle power was ALWAYS the main source of diesel locomotion on all the rails in this town. If someone would have told me back then that I would see BIG, modern 6-axle BNSF main line road power on the ex-Mop branch line rails (90 lbs, maybe), I would have called BS very loudly. And then lost a huge, seemingly sure-fire safe bet!

Today that phantom bet would have come due! I watched in stunned disbelief as 3 BIG-GALOOT BNSF road units creepy-crawled their way east over those previously mentioned tiny rails, while gathering up 135 empty coal hoppers for local transfer to the BNSF. It was a very slow, almost painful process to watch. And oh yeah, I got the whole scene in pixel form. But until my new computer arrives here is a teaser from my laptop for the time being:

1. BNSF power is creeping over ex-Mop branch line rails to go fetch the first cut of stored coal hoppers just east of Concordia, KS on April 21, 2021. Consist (all BNSF): 9058, 9955 & 5608

Thanks for tip-toeing!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/21 00:06 by santafe199.

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Like your low light picts.  The weeds can be a problem
sd-45

SD45 Wrote: > ... weeds can be a problem ...

(chuckling) YUP! The last train on these rails was the one that parked these coal hoppers so many moons ago... :^)

Lance

Lance--90# rail is big stuff! More important is the tie condition

...what ties?