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A light engine move worth modelling


beast66606

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I think all the ex-UP locos - with the UP name obscured - were actually SD40T-2s. This was not a widely sold model compared to the SD40-2, being made, at an extra cost of $20k per unit, for Southern Pacific and Rio Grande. Unless these are SD40-2s subsequently converted?

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No SD40T-2s were converted, they were all built that way. The UP had a big surprise after its merger with SP when it found the SP locos were in far worse shape than they'd thought. The SP always had a press image better than the reality, which was ramshackle and make-do. Fun to model, not fun in the real world! The UP made major orders of SD70Ms to replace all the SP locos they thought they could keep using. In the past 15 years, the UP has pretty much completely rebuilt the former SP, to the point that many locations are no longer recognizable from their pre-merger state.

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I think all the ex-UP locos - with the UP name obscured - were actually SD40T-2s. This was not a widely sold model compared to the SD40-2, being made, at an extra cost of $20k per unit, for Southern Pacific and Rio Grande. Unless these are SD40-2s subsequently converted?

i don't think any were converted, they must all be ex SP and DRGW SD40T-2s acquired in the merger - I made it 29 of them in the video.

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It looks like a revenue move of dead engines going to a locomotive rebuilder/scrapper. Over the years I have seen several of those moves. I remember a 40-50 unit move of ex-MP GP35's and U30C's from Texas to Chicago for scrapping/rebuilding. A significat number of those engines in the video would have not been in running order.

 

The UP is getting rid of all pre-SD60 engines, except for a few SD40-2's that have been rebuilt for yard/local service.

 

Back in the 1990's the UP would run weekly 25 unit power moves of good power out of LA to N Platte and Chicago. They were in good order.

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Here's an ex-Rio Grande unit at Larry's Truck and Electric, just patched. LTE would give them a test startup and determine which ones went out as lease and which got parted out.

post-8839-0-46584800-1352043057.jpg

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Nope, it's an SD70M flare -- the trucks are a giveaway. As part of its last gasp, though, the SP got Morrison-Knudsen SD40Ms mostly in SD45 bodies, which could be deceptive:

post-8839-0-61046000-1352044604.jpg

These didn't last very long, either. I don't believe any original SD45s made it to UP via the SP merger (they had 50 of their own, out by the early 1980s), although someone might be able to correct me; I did see one or two SD45T-2s.

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Does the "NREX" written under each loco's number mean anything?

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

NREX have done some of the worst patch jobs around..!!! Look what they did to the Wisconsin Central's #2500:-

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1192177

 

Worth saying too that these locos in the OP are pretty much 1970's engines; SD40s were built between 1972 and - for the US market - 1984, according to Wikipedia.

How many 1970s diesels are still running in the UK?

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NREX have done some of the worst patch jobs around..!!! Look what they did to the Wisconsin Central's #2500:-

http://www.rrpicture...aspx?id=1192177

 

Worth saying too that these locos in the OP are pretty much 1970's engines; SD40s were built between 1972 and - for the US market - 1984, according to Wikipedia.

How many 1970s diesels are still running in the UK?

Not many 1970s locos I would think but quite a few 1960s built from Classes 20, 31, 37, 47 and 73 (the latter are electro-diesel) plus there are probably still some 1950s built 08s plus 1960s built 08s and 09s. Altogether that makes several hundred in mainlie-ish service although if you take out the shunters there probably only just over 100.

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I can't understand why it is called a light engine move. At over 200 tons each that is a Very Heavy engine move. UP still has quite alot of SD40's of various sub types in local and yard service. As to the patches. They have to carry a valid loco number to be moved so NREX woulkd have just put their letters on them. If they had still been owned by UP they may well have received WP reporting marks.

 

Jamie

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