SP 266 ALMOST leading in Clinton, IA 072608

So I missed the first part of the story on this. I got a trace saying that SP 266 arrived here 15 minutes beforehand. I scrambled down to the yard office and found it as a rear-facing DPU on a westbound bucket train(head end of the train was sitting at either Central Steel or Camanche, i'm not sure which). Soon after I heard some scanner chatter about the westbound at KMX(Camanche) needing a head-end EOT and something about the crew heading back to the DPU. Sure enough, a crew van showed up and they cut the SP unit off and ran it a few hundred feet up the track to the yard switch and they parked her in the timefreight yard. I honestly have no idea why any of this happened, but I'm not going to object as this is the closest i've ever come to seeing an SP unit lead.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• SP
• Southern
• Pacific
• Espee
• AC44
• CW44AC
• UP
• Union
• Clinton
• Iowa
• DPU

[MaxInterjects]

Nah UP never used alternating ditch lights. They wouldn't have installed them on anything, SP or otherwise. Unless, of course, that's what they had lying around at the shop. I'm sure there could be other reasons

[CQDX018]

There are still a handfull of actual SP motors out there.

[spazman13579]

I think UP installed them once they bought SP out in 1996.

[MaxInterjects]

hmmm SP had alternating ditch lights? I did not know this!

[LMFDfireman]

i live in camanche next to clinton. ive always been looking for spots to film trains. dad works for the UP.

[BoxcarFrank]

I saw this unit as a DPU on a coal drag by UD in Joliet.

[burner50]

They conventionalize that waukegan coal train alot of times. It was used on MCLMT the next day

[Postal67]

Been there, done that! Great place to keep an eye on yard work. My second choice is Low Moor to the west. Or anywhere between Rochelle and North Platte!

Posting some of Rochelle from yesterday, 8/31 enjoy

[cchan006]

Long live the unpatched units... Nice catch!

[UPTurner]

Awesome Video!!