Over the past several decades all of America's Class 1 railroads have been absorbed via merger into five mega railroads (BNSF, UP, KCS, CSX and NS). Though hundreds of flags have fallen and the names and colors of once proud railroads have been painted over in new colors and wear different names now some ghosts of the past still remain. A trip this afternoon to the BNSF yard offices in La Mirada, Ca provided many examples of Santa Fe (ATSF) locomotives and equipment still in use some still wearing their original names and colors.
Between 1985 and 1994 the Santa Fe railroad purchased a large number of GP60 locomotives from General Motors. Early versions of these 4-axle diesel locomotives looked very much like their brethren with a standard cab configuration and yellow on navy blue paint. In 1990 however the ATSF ordered several new model GP60Ms with the new comfort/safety cab and a wide nose painted in the red and silver Warbonnet Paint Scheme that graced the lines famous passenger trains from decades past. Those locomotives formed the core of Santa Fe's "Super Fleet" of intermodal trains that raced between Chicago and Los Angeles at break-neck speed.
Flash forward to 2012. The Santa Fe is gone and 4-axle locomotives have been replaced by 6-axle monsters. The locomotive that once was the pride of the line is now all but gone, a rare bird, well that is unless your standing in La Mirada on a spring day. Examples of the GP60 was all that was on hand today in the yard idling and waiting for local freight assignments. Two in their original Santa Fe colors and two repainted in the "heritage" colors of the BNSF.
What else do I see? Yet another piece of railroading history, a caboose, the rolling office for train personnel that used to bring up the rear of every freight train before the invention of the flashing rear-end device, or "FRED," (also called an end-of-train device, ETD or EOT) also in it's original red Santa Fe paint ... and graffiti. Another rare bird indeed!
Here are the photos:
Check Out:
No comments:
Post a Comment