Western Railroad Discussion > Rio Grande GP40 in Lease Service

Southern California Railroad 2000, formerly DRGW 3076 (built in 1967), was sold to Dieselmotive Company in 2019. Later that year, the locomotive was shipped north from Plaster City, CA (near the US-MEX border) to the Port of Stockton, where it was prepared for service. The former Rio Grande 3076 spent nearly 20 years in Imperial County as a designated plant switcher.

By May 2020, BUGX 2000 was ready to hit the road for work, eventually assigned to Central California Traction Company's underpowered Stockton-Lodi turn. Number 2000 was positioned to lead the northbound run of the job along the erstwhile interurban line. Several railfans flocked to CCT's Central Valley Branch to view the 3,000 horsepower unit flexing its muscles on the Lodi Flyer.

The video clips featured show BUGX 2000 on the CCT in spring 2020 and later on in fall and winter. Number 2000 hasn't handled any freight on the Traction Company for some time, now at a secure, private yard in central Stockton.

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Nice chase, @ .49 of the video she is really smoking it up:)
Robert in Island City Oregon

Very nice Nathan P3 horn!
Regards, Jim Evans

It's nice to see this unit up and running again, I assisted
doing a couple 92 day inspections on this unit while at
Plaster City. We went back to inspect the unit after it had
been cornered in the yard. Significant damage occurred
to the engineer's side rear corner. Took out the steps, a
part of the end plate, a portion of the side walkway and
damaged some of the MU piping under the end platform
and walkway! The owner went with an El Centro welding
company to do some of the repairs!

Mike

Here is a shot of 3076 from around '77 or 78 (not positive about the date).  The location is west of Plainview between tunnels 2 and 3 (again not positive about the exact location but for sure it is before tunnel 8).  This is a scan of a Kodak 126 negative - The Kodak 126 is all I had back then.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/22 21:19 by CLM.

---

Nice video...

2720 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's nice to see this unit up and running again, I
> assisted
> doing a couple 92 day inspections on this unit
> while at
> Plaster City. We went back to inspect the unit
> after it had
> been cornered in the yard. Significant damage
> occurred
> to the engineer's side rear corner. Took out the
> steps, a
> part of the end plate, a portion of the side
> walkway and
> damaged some of the MU piping under the end
> platform
> and walkway! The owner went with an El Centro
> welding
> company to do some of the repairs!
>
> Mike

Dieselmotive Company (BUGX) performed the repairs to the unit in January of 2019, with the welding work contracted to a local El Centro vendor as you mentioned.

Can't remeber the welder's name off the top of my head, but he did top notch work and you can hardly tell the 2000 was ever damaged.