Western Railroad Discussion > MAC funeral train

Headed to Midloathian for scrap, video courtesy of my mom at Oklaunion TX today on the Red River Valley sub.
UP at Estelline, TX trackage rights. Think it came from Colorado Pacific at NA Jct.
Load east of Kirkland TX
 

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Vehicle train passing ballast train at Goodlett,TX
Quannah depot
Z train over Pease River at Vernon

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And the MACs at Vernon
Oklaunion coming and going

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Wichita Tillman & Jackson at Wichita Falls
And arrival at Wichita Falls
Westbound Z arrives Wichita Falls.  Is one of these FW&D and the other MKT? Turned into a siding.

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Great shots! I've been tyring to catalog every active BNSF SD70MAC it's helpful to see what may be no more. 

On that note, what is in service is so seemingly random. It covers all orders and ages. Here are some findings so far:

- Even 1-2 of the very first Phase 1 SD70MAC's are in service. 
- In that string, check out how most are later BNSF orange units. Of what I'm finding that is active, I think there are proportionally more early to middle executive MAC's operating that middle to later BNSF ordered H2 MACs. 
- Of the 3+ MAC's that got H4 swoosh paint, I think all are stored or scrapped even though I know at least got an engine overhaul that prompted the repaint. 
- Of the 24 SD70MACe's that got rebuilt, it seems like most might be in storage. Yet some of the earliest, unrebuilt units are running. 
- Of the MAC's that got PTC that aren't SD70MACe's, it seems like all of those are in storage too, and nearly in service units are ones that lack PTC and only trail. 

Please correct me if I'm wrong on all of that! It's a bit of a mess to figure out. 
 

Great bunch. On the road again.
JB

In every batch of common mechanical things there are good actors and bad actors from the start, tempered in time by many factors including mileage, maintenance(or lack thereof), hours of use, weather, type of service, etc etc. This is true even if they come from common blueprints, further influenced as in automobiles by the day of the week of manufacture and actual manufacture location (E.G. these locomotives London, ON or Mexico). Rather than simply wholesale retire certain number series or manufacture date series, it makes more sense to weed out the worst actors when a major failure occurs. Every locomotive has a running log record on file. So what to the outsider seems like a fully random selection actually makes sense. Apparently those from the first series still running are good actors. === === = === JLH

What a shame. With some TLC…they’d still be great engines that are very much needed today by BNSF. Oh they use too much fuel….my butt….TO wastes more fuel every trip…than any MAC ever has.

Train symbol is the D-GUECLB4-18T. Originated in Guernsey, WY, online destination Cleburne, TX.

inCHI Wrote:
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> Great shots! I've been tyring to catalog every
> active BNSF SD70MAC it's helpful to see what may
> be no more. 
> 
Last week, 2-16, here is the 9591 in trail on CSX M503 a Chicago-Nashville daily freight. Quite the lashup!
Photos are just south of Vincennes, IN on the CSX CE&D sub.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/26 02:47 by CSX2605.

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Yet another Great series there D!

Nice series, compliments to your mom on her picture!

The Quannah station is in fine condition!

Great stuff..!!  Thanks for posting.

I feel old lol......:</

Some operational history of the BN/BNSF SD70MACs.  One has to remember that the first sets of MACs were actually purchased by the BN.  For more than a decade after, including  deliveries of subsequent batches of MACs to BNSF, they were pretty much dedicated to heavy coal service.  As such, they were in heavy haul service at the very peak decade-plus of the coal boom in the Powder River Basin, running nearly constantly.  It wasn't until later that the MACs started finding their way to other service.  So, a lot of the MACs are likely pretty worn out, and not just prime movers and traction motors, but frames, subframes, electrical assemblies, etc.  Simply put, there may be better candidates in the BNSF fleet for rebuilding.

As to which are taken out of service and which are not, there may be financial agreements, as well.  Most locomotives are "purchased" under trust certificates, which are really sort of a long-term lease.  Generally, a  locomotive must reach the end of that trust certificate before it can be sold, traded, or scrapped.  Many "dead line" locomotives are ones that are uneconomical to repair or rebuild, but still have outstanding trust certificates.  Once the certificates expire ("mature"), then the locomotives may head to the scrapper.  On some older locomotives that are deemed uneconomical to rebuild but are still considered "serviceable", they may also be pulled out of storage and put back to work on a "run until major failure" basis, then sent to the scrap line.

I can only speculate as to what is occurring with this bunch of MACs, but I suspect it may be mixture of all the above potential reasons.  One thing that is likely not--random.

WW Wrote:
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> Some operational history of the BN/BNSF
> SD70MACs.  One has to remember that the first
> sets of MACs were actually purchased by the BN. 
> For more than a decade after, including 
> deliveries of subsequent batches of MACs to BNSF,
> they were pretty much dedicated to heavy coal
> service.  As such, they were in heavy haul
> service at the very peak decade-plus of the coal
> boom in the Powder River Basin, running nearly
> constantly.  It wasn't until later that the MACs
> started finding their way to other service.  So,
> a lot of the MACs are likely pretty worn out, and
> not just prime movers and traction motors, but
> frames, subframes, electrical assemblies, etc. 
> Simply put, there may be better candidates in the
> BNSF fleet for rebuilding.
>
> As to which are taken out of service and which are
> not, there may be financial agreements, as well. 
> Most locomotives are "purchased" under trust
> certificates, which are really sort of a long-term
> lease.  Generally, a  locomotive must reach the
> end of that trust certificate before it can be
> sold, traded, or scrapped.  Many "dead line"
> locomotives are ones that are uneconomical to
> repair or rebuild, but still have outstanding
> trust certificates.  Once the certificates expire
> ("mature"), then the locomotives may head to the
> scrapper.  On some older locomotives that are
> deemed uneconomical to rebuild but are still
> considered "serviceable", they may also be pulled
> out of storage and put back to work on a "run
> until major failure" basis, then sent to the scrap
> line.
>
> I can only speculate as to what is occurring with
> this bunch of MACs, but I suspect it may be
> mixture of all the above potential reasons.  One
> thing that is likely not--random.

Thanks for that great explanation.

Of course, that will not satisfy the TO judges, to which facts and common sense are not relevant.

 

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My understanding is that many of the SD70Mac's that have the Siemens Inverters are in trouble as Siemens no longer supports them and spares are getting tough to come by.
I'm not sure what / or if it is possible by transplanting  Mitshubishi Inverters  in them, which I think would need six?, one for each axle instead of one for each truck (2).

Maybe someone out there can shed some light on that.

train1275 Wrote:
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> I'm not sure what / or if it is possible by
> transplanting  Mitshubishi Inverters  in them

That’s what the SD70MACe is-Mitsubishi parts replacing the Siemens parts.