Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF's H-DENLAU with a CP, NS, SD40-2, and, yes, a yard slug!

A vibrant and interesting 5x0 (see detailed power information below) northbound H-DENLAU manifest freight train is seen here notching up as it departs Loveland, CO, (~MP64-65) on the BNSF Front Range Subdivision during the last few moments of daylight of 12/03/2021. This was actually yesterday's (12/02/2021) scheduled H-DENLAU; however, the crew was told to do their setout at Highland, CO, instead of Cheyenne, WY, and therefore died on hours in the Longs Peak, CO, siding. The train was 5759 ft according to a defect detector that the crew passed by as they left Broomfield, CO, early this morning before the setout at Highland, CO. A relief crew finally came aboard around noontime, but had to idle for many hours before departing as the locals had to clear.  


Power:
BNSF #3919 (GE ET44C4; built: ??/????)
CP #9727 (GE AC44CW; built: 12/2002)
NS #1101 (EMD SD70ACe; built: 02/2014)
BNSF #1908 (EMD SD40-2; built: 11/1980; ex-ATSF)
BN #65 (Rebuilt EMD Yard Slug; built: 05/1969; too much history to type it all out here... LOL)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/21 20:20 by jmulhol2.

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Thats quite the colorful consist!  
That poor slug cant find a home.  They keep sending it to Denver, and they keep rejecting it.  Just not enough oomph to pull cuts out.  

So I have been doing it right on my model RR!

 

Cliff Rutherford
Grain Valley, MO

Sounded like the NS ACe was doing all the work!

msw
spokane

Pinlifter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thats quite the colorful consist!  
> That poor slug cant find a home.  They keep
> sending it to Denver, and they keep rejecting
> it.  Just not enough oomph to pull cuts out.  

Just the SD40-2 should have plenty of power to pull cuts of cars out to be switched, even without the extra tractive effort of the slug.  It does seem odd though to send these to a flat switched yard, they're usually found at hump yards - maybe they're sending it to Pasco or Northtown.

BNSF sent a slug set one time to Lindenwood Yard in St.Louis when we needed a RCO capable unit and the crews hated it. The west end of the yard is in a “sag” and the usual 2 unit SD40 set has enough power but the SD38P/slug was severely underpowered for the job.

Posted from iPhone

wyeth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pinlifter Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Thats quite the colorful consist!  
> > That poor slug cant find a home.  They keep
> > sending it to Denver, and they keep rejecting
> > it.  Just not enough oomph to pull cuts
> out.  
>
> Just the SD40-2 should have plenty of power to
> pull cuts of cars out to be switched, even without
> the extra tractive effort of the slug.  It does
> seem odd though to send these to a flat switched
> yard, they're usually found at hump yards - maybe
> they're sending it to Pasco or Northtown.

I guess a lot of it depends on the yard and how big of cuts you normally handle.  I used to work at Eddyville, Iowa, with Railserve.  The main yard lead curves down a small hill into the yard.  A single GP7 could barely pull 20 loads out of yard and into the plant.

Dylan VanAntwerp
Jesup, IA