Western Railroad Discussion > Down at the "Engine Terminal"

For the past month-ish, BNSF Gateway Sub trains have been leaving power in downtown Crescent Mills, California. Southbound trains drop a unit or two and northbounds pick them up. Whether this is done to save fuel or to keep Northwest power headed back north, I do not know. What I do know is that each of these drop-offs and pick-ups consume an agonizingly lengthy amount of time. About the best I have seen is 45 minutes and some are in excess of 2 hours. When I went to the Post Office this morning I found 7 units in the "engine terminal" (the most I have seen, usually 2 or 4) with good variety.

#1 - Group shot of 6 of the units, looking north.
#2 - FerroMex EMD SD70ACe #4025 separate from the rest of the group. Unfortunately, it was parked amongst ties and other railroad "stuff" that is a remnant of Dixie Fire restoration work and general track work. The crews really need to make more photogenic drops, ha-ha.
#3 -CP GE AS44AC #8862

Continued....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/22 13:31 by icancmp193.

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#4 - CP GE ES44AC #9361
#5 - BNSF GE C44-9W #685 (with "Santa Fe" cigar band) and H1 companion
#6 - CN GE ES44AC #2964 (corrected)

Any burned-out hillsides you see are the results of last year's Dixie Fire. One year ago today, we were evacuated for a month (well, I guess we could have returned for a few days in between, but we were already gone) and on August 4, 2021, the town of Greenville was 75% destroyed by the fire.

TJY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/22 18:07 by icancmp193.

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Those doggies have strayed from home !

This would make a good "who's railroad is it anyway?"

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> #4 - CP GE ES44AC #9361
> #5 - BNSF GE C44-9W #685 (with "Santa Fe" cigar
> band) and H1 companion
> #6 - CN GE C44-9W #2964
>

CN 2964 is a ES44AC...

Interesting they would want to do additional switching. I wonder if UP charges them for the extra locomotives or tonnage?

Jim B

jimB Wrote:
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> Interesting they would want to do additional
> switching. I wonder if UP charges them for the
> extra locomotives or tonnage?
>
> Jim B

They do not. It's almost assuredly to save time on returning power north. The UP did/does the same thing in K Falls. . .

If it is to return foreign motors back north, then how come they are dropping BNSF motors as well?

joeycarroll Wrote:
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> If it is to return foreign motors back north, then
> how come they are dropping BNSF motors as well?

As noted in the post, this is on the BNSF Gateway Sub, not the UP.

TJY

 

I’m aware, i’m curious as to why BNSF is dropping off their own units if the purpose of this move is to return foreign units north…

Posted from iPhone

joeycarroll Wrote:
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> I’m aware, i’m curious as to why BNSF is
> dropping off their own units if the purpose of
> this move is to return foreign units north…
>
> Posted from iPhone

I think the purpose of the move is to get ANY power north. We get quite a few foreign units, mostly on grain trains.
Although I think that same BNSF H1 unit might have been in town last week too.

TJY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/22 13:38 by icancmp193.

Gotchya, I railfan the same area frequently. Got a (repainted) H1 Leader coming south now, wonder if they will make the stop.