Railfanning the UP Herington Subdivison, 10-7-07

Wow! Thats all I have to say on what i caught today.

Train 1: Eastbound UP Autotrain led by UP ES44AC #5509, UP ES44AC 5288, and UP SD70M #4378.

Train 2: Westbound UP Grain train led by UP AC4400CW #5998, UP SD70ACe #8391, and the best thing I have caught in a long time....Southern Pacific AC44CW #187 UNPATCHED!

Train 3: Eastbound UP Stacktrain led by UP ES44AC #7685, UP SD70ACe #8559, and UP SD70M #4475.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• UP
• Union
• Pacific
• KCS
• BNSF
• CSX
• NS
• railroad
• railfan
• train
• Dash-8
• Kansas
• City
• Southern
• GEVO
• SD60
• Railfanning
• the
• Herington

[eccentriceric]

nice chuck, to see some titling and effects on your videos. Though if you could follow the engines and zoom out at an equal rate it would make the videos more exciting. i read on other site that you shoot photos as well thats why you don't. a word of advice my friend, it's better to choose one or the other and do it right rather then compromising your video to do both. I don't have to worry about this problem as I'm too poor to by another camera, i only have one LOL!!!! ;)

[Treyvs]

LOL, thanks for those tips Eric, but I love both my pictures, and videos, and as time goes on I will get better at them both.

[rhsballa3344]

i think the SP 187 is a AC4400CW. not a C44-9W

[Treyvs]

they are all the same patrick lol...

[duxberry1958]

u in a grave yard

[74VDC]

I'm not a power coordinater, but I just don't know how CSX or GE can afford all the re-work they are doing to these things. I'd take a Alstom rebuilt SD40-2 with added fuel injection ANY DAY. Cheaper, FAR more reliable and fuel injection should make the fuel consumption more palatable. Occasionally they need to add an extra motor for power, or likely for added braking, but so what? Increased profit is really what it's all about. BTW..they are now rebuilding SD50-2's. Why you ask?

[74VDC]

Read my recent post...they DO NOT have the EMD option. They tried.

[74VDC]

CSX followed BNSF last May, or perhaps the May before (I forget), when they froze their orders. CSX approached EMD concerning new orders and was told "no way", backlogged (at the time) until 2011. UP and BN had purchased EVOs earlier and had already discovered what CSX was now learning. GE's (while nice) are too costly to operate from a maintenance standpoint. I want GE to do well, they are an American Co., but they gotta do alot better.

[74VDC]

These failures have become commonplace with all our new GEs. Turbos, main alts...junk, pure junk. All the recently purchased locos are all (or have already) undergone complete truck rebuilds and redesigns. Ever-changing software needs loaded at every Q. When they run they do pull harder and have quieter cabs. Ge claims huge fuel savings, that's cuz they are all in our shop getting rebuilt. Yeah, they save lots of fuel.

[74VDC]

That's because they're selling them cheaper than EMD can build them according to our local EMD/Siemens rep.

GE is also masterful in it's maintenance agreement programs. They have the good money-guys / salesman that just blow EMD out of the water. I work for CSX, and they bought one brand new unit and had probably around $500,000 in repairs on it before it pulled a single train. Brand new...directly from Erie.

I don't know about you, but to me that's absolutely unacceptable.

[theup3985]

The alternating ditch lights are an optional feature that must be specified when the locomotive is ordered. FRA does not require the alternating ditch lights (I believe the practice actually originated in Canada). UP and BNSF in general do not use alternating ditch lights. However, the SP did use them on some of their later GE units, and so you will sometimes find them on ex-SP GE units placed on the point of UP trains.

[Jurgy631]

i wondered why UP and BNSF didn't do that while NS and CSX did. that must explain it.  GE locos.