Central Oklahoma "Winter Blast '06" Trains Part III of V

THIS VIDEO IS THE SOLE PROPERTY OF JAMES B. TRACHIER, COPYRIGHT © 2006.

December 1, 2006 2:17 PM CST
BNSF Railway Red Rock Subdivision
Norman, OK

Train: Southbound Manifest
Motive Power: BNSF B40-8W (ex-ATSF) & Unknown Leaser SD40-2(?) (road numbers unidentifiable)

On this bright and cold December afternoon a classic former Santa Fe "Warbonnet" leads a southbound BNSF manifest train through the Lexington Avenue grade crossing.

This is Part III of the five-part "Central Oklahoma Winter Blast '06" railfanning series.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• BNSF
• Burlington
• Northern
• Santa
• Fe
• Railway
• Red
• Rock
• Subdivision
• Lexington
• Ave
• Norman
• OK
• Oklahoma
• railroad
• crossing
• trains
• train
• snow
• winter
• 73072
• BNSF Railway
• Bryan's Rail Channel
• James
• Bryan
• Trachier

[jantheman9999]

I miss this

[theup3985]

@jantheman9999 Me too. I don't see nearly as many warbonnets in the original Santa Fe lettering pulling trains anymore on this line. And I really miss seeing the blue and yellow SD40-2s on the point of trains, even in 2006 you could still see them leading. These days I'm usually lucky to get anything other than solid HIII or HII lashups, even the HI pumpkins are a nice change-of-pace from solid HII and HIII lashups all the time.

[uawildcat50]

@theup3985 if you ever have time go to arizona to the seligman sub and you will see many original warbonnets with the original paint plus its a great place to film they get close to 75 trains daily

[theup3985]

@uawildcat50 I've been out there and have seen just about the entire stretch of the Transcon between Albuquerque and Barstow, and even managed to get some train footage in Flagstaff earlier this summer. I can tell you that I saw almost nothing other than HIII GEVOs and HII Dash 9's pulling those trains, warbonnets were very few and far between, and when they were seen, they were usually embedded within the locomotive consist, not leading. Can't argue with the high daily train count though.

[tenticalteeth]

does bnsf still run these red and silver warbonnet engines or is this just a one in a blue moon sort of deal

[theup3985]

@tenticalteeth

Yes, you still see some of the former Santa Fe warbonnets plying the rails, though the paint on them is becoming more faded and they are gradually being repainted into the BNSF HIII scheme. Problems with some of the newer GE ES44AC units coupled with a rebound in freight rail demand has also allowed some of the Warbonnet SD75s to temporarily come out of storage while the problematic GEVO's are in the shops, but you can bet that won't last.

[uawildcat50]

@theup3985 what time did you go because it seems like the best time to go see warbonnets pulling not in between the locomotive consist would have to be early september late october thats when i usually see them but you are right other than that time there are very few of them pulling but yes i would consider going then but if you were going to film go between 7-800 am near the cholla power plant thats when a majority of them go by so

[jantheman9999]

@theup3985 I know exactly what you mean. I live in Merced and all I see on literally every train is a 4-pack of HII Dash-9's. Don't get me wrong, those are great engines. But they just can't compare to anything the ATSF had.

[KillaTrains]

Ahhhh the sounds of ATSF warbonnet dashing through the snow with all its payload all the way!!! ATSF ATSF ATSF all the way oh what fun its is to ride in a long run charging train!! lol miss the SF real bad

[trains1129]

RS3L is AWESOME !!!