Nostalgia & History > Dead Line @ Barstow, Sept. 11, 1991

The Kodachromes in the top photo and the closest unit in the bottom photo are C30-7s built in 1978 and 79 so they were a dozen years old or so. Seems a little young to be scrapped.

Marty Bernard

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I caught this line in 1992 and was thankful for good lighting and the units to be close enough to the road to get photos without incurring the wrath of employees.

Didn't some this find seconds lives as lease units?

Some of the F45's and SD45's (Along with one FP45) went to have successful careers on the Wisconsin Central. I remember when we got them from the ATSF and ran them all when I got my engineer's card in 1996. The WC tweaked and rebuilt the SD45's and they turned into fine power which lasted to the unfortunate CN takeover in 2001.

wchogger

MartyBernard Wrote:

> The Kodachromes in the top photo and the closest
> unit in the bottom photo are C30-7s built in 1978
> and 79 so they were a dozen years old or so.
> Seems a little young to be scrapped.

The C30-7's were leased, and Santa Fe turned them back early as part of a deal with GE. The units pictured are from the 8010-8098 group, which GE got back free and clear. Almost none of them went straight to the scrapyard from that deadline. The majority lasted many more years as lease units either for Conrail or GE, and some were eventually exported to Brazil where they are still at it. The 8064, 8076, and 8086 all learned to chug in Portuguese.