Issue No. 5
June 20, 1995
Amtrak/Caltrans:
Locomotive 2006 made its first revenue run on the San Joaquins on Monday June 12.
The following radio conversation was overheard at Pinole around 6PM (on the
12th):
"Train 718 to 715".
"715"
"You got an EMD guy riding with you?"
"Yes, sir, we do."
"Tell him, we got the 2006 on its first trip, and right out of the coach yard it
has flat wheels."
++++++++++
Consist Corner:
Amtrak, June 10:
#6 at Roseville 13:15 380-500
Eric Blasko
May 30--Clinton-based Farmrail System Inc. is seeking federal protection from conditions that might arise from the pending merger of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe railroads - a move which would create the nation's largest rail system.
Farmrail has asked the Interstate Commerce Commission for "protective conditions" which it says are "inconsequential to the merging companies." The western-Oklahoma railroad wants to eliminate contractural restrictions on its ability to do business with connecting railroads other than Burlington Northern or Santa Fe, Farmrail chairman George C. Betke Jr. said. "Brian P. Kreimendahl" <73163.2700@compuserve.com>
==============
Question for you? Do you know if ATSF 203 has been delivered yet or not? If
so, do you know about when?
All other units (200-202,204-224) present and accounted for. #225 went into
AMF paint shop about 5/11, other units are on the floor at GMD - could this
order be delivered early?
+++++++++
The next batch of Santa Fe SD75Ms is shipping 2 months early. 225 was ready
at London on 6/5 and 226 was released by Paducah on 6/3. Keep your eyes
open.
WC is acquiring 5 more ex-ATSF units: 5381, 5955, 5956, 5965, 5981.
Sean Graham-White alasgw@interaccess.com
==============
Consist Corner:
Santa Fe, June 12:
S-CHRI at Muir, 10:40 825-5511-612
899 train at Gateley 13:41 616-95-622-5023
Eric Blasko
==============
Colton-Six SD-75's were seen. 206 led two GP-60B's and a GP-40X (3808) on an
eastbound. 200 was seen as a the trailing unit on a westbound train. In
Barstow, four SD-75's were seen, 221, 204, 218 and an unidentified unit.
Many GE's are stored in Barstow, I saw about 20, which included CF-30's and
C30-7's. I could also see a number of SD-45's, SDF-40's and F-45's in the
storage lines.
FP-45, 93 is also still at Barstow.
Tim Harris
Morrison Knudsen's subsidiary MK Rail reported a loss for 1994 and the first quarter of 1995. As a result of the announcement of the loss, the company is apparently going to discontinue AC research and delay indefinitely the manufacture of the MK5000C and the MK1200G locomotives. The 1994 loss was $42.8 million. The results included a pre-tax charge of $39.2 million for "Unusual Items." This included a charge of $12.4 million for contract losses, principally involving the contract with SP.
MK Rail was unable to report 1994 & 1995 figures until June 16th due to various matters including the need to settle intercompany accounts and the sale of MKÕs Australian operations.
On the upside the components group, which manufactures aftermarket parts for the locomotive market had a $22.6 million profit in 1994.
With news from Brian P. Kreimenda
THE CAN CAN
A series of hearings are being held in Southern California that will have a significant effect on something near and dear to the hearts of SP fans, the cans.
Public hearings have been ongoing over a planned $150 million Pacific Pipeline that will be 130-miles-long and would deliver crude oil from Santa Barbara to Wilmington, California. This will be the final piece of a pipeline from the Santa Barbara offshore oil fields to the LA refineries.
The pipeline will carry 130,000 barrels of oil a day and will generate 600 construction jobs. Land owners have been opposing the project citing concerns over seismic safety.
With news from Brian P. Kreimenda
==============
DENVER-May 30--Larry R. Parsons was named to the new position of Executive Vice President-Operations, of Southern Pacific Lines, Jerry R. Davis, SP Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, announced today. The appointment is effective June 1.
In his new position, Parsons will report to Davis and will be in charge of all rail operating functions. The vice presidents of transportation, engineering and mechanical departments will report to Parsons.
Parsons' 37 years in the railroad industry have been primarily in operations, starting at the Union Pacific Railroad. From 1968 until 1989, he held a variety of Operating Department positions with the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, a predecessor of Southern Pacific Lines, the last four as Vice President of Operations. From 1989 to 1991, Parsons held executive positions with the Kansas City Southern Railway, first as Vice President-Administration, then Vice President-Marketing and finally Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
In 1992 he joined the
investment group that had purchased the 580-mile regional Wheeling & Lake
Erie Railway Co. from Norfolk Southern Corp., and has been President and
Chief Executive Officer of the Brewster, Ohio-based carrier.
Parsons, 55, is a native of Blue Rapids, Kansas. He and his wife, the
former Phyllis J. Bisel, have four grown children. He is a graduate of the
University of Kansas.
"Brian P. Kreimendahl" <73163.2700@compuserve.com>
==============
Consist Corner:
SP, June 10:
Roseville 13:55 EUWCM 7855-7831-8281
Roseville 18:05 Westb. 9615-CR5555-7479 Came off the Hill, symbol unknown.
Conrail 5555 is an SD60M.
Eric Blasko
==============
Units 100-181, 183, 184, 186 delivred as of 5/30. Units
217,218, 300-302 sighted at Erie on 5/26.
Sean Graham-White
==============
SP's TOPS computer now lists numbers that will be assigned for the three AC6000's. They will be SP 600-602, to be delivered in November or December 1995. They will be 76 feet long, have 87/16 gear ratios, 75-mph maximum speed, and a whopping big 5,500-gallon fuel tanks. As of this morning, SP AC4400CWs on the property were SP100-202, 27-223, 301-302. We have a report that SP up'd it's AC order from 279 units to 302 units.
SP is compiling, and revising daily, a list of high cost of maintenance,
low-hp. units to be considered for retirement this year. In fact, the plan is
to retire 100 units by the end of this month, and 128 by the end of July. The
list of retirement candidates keeps changing each day, but to give an idea of
what is being considered "retirement candidates" here are the ones listed on
6/13 that would be retired at the end of June:
Also look for more B23-7s, GP30s, and SD39s to go.
SP has returned to Helm Leasing seven SD45Rs. These seven units, (SP 7537
7539 7561-7565) were routed to Pine Bluff for joint inspection by SP and Helm
before returning to Helm. Look for more 20-cylinder SD45Rs (and possibly
SD45T-2s) to leave the SP roster this year. We'll list them as we get them
here and in Flimsies and the SP Review magazines.
Tony Johnson - Central Point OR.
==============
On the morning of June 13, 1995, a motorist died at the Arden Ave. crossing
of the SP mainline in El Monte. From news reports, the driver went around
crossing gates in the down position and was struck by a westbound SP stack
train. The car was dragged about 50 feet and left upside-down on the south
side of the tracks. Coroner was still on the scene as of 9:00AM.
Ron Lehmer
==============
Well Boys, (and girls-ed.)
I just got a call from Eric, and he caught the newly repainted SP
black widow GP9 on its way to Sacramento for the weekend! It was seen on the
Ozol Turn, as the lead unit in a consist of three GP9Es over the trestle at
Martinez. The SP 5623 is a former SP "torpedo-boat" GP9E that has recently
been purchased and restored by a couple of private individuals.
Lucky Them, and Lucky Us!
Cheers,
Harry K. Wong
==============
Who says time travel isn't possible?
Ex-SP GP9 5623, in Black Widow paint, did indeed travel to Sacramento yesterday. It ran on the Ozol Turn, on the point of the following consist:
The units ran light from Oakland to Ozol, then picked up their train. The 3852 was ailing, so it wasn't pulling its weight on the grade up to the Mtz-Benicia bridge. The 5623 and 3873 were howling as the train crawled up the grade. What an awesome sight! It was nice to see a working Mars light again also. A very fulfilling morning, to say the least. The chase was on to Suisun, where everyone expected him to switch, but instead he plowed right on through.
The Turn did stop north of Fairfield at "Tolinas" (sp.?) which is just west of Cannon (where the SN used to cross over). But by the time I got out there after slogging through the traffic of outer Fairfield, he was gone. Word is that the 5623 will come back to Oakland on Monday.
I'm still blown away, partly because I wasn't aware of this event until the day
before.
Eric Blasko
ST LOUIS-June 05-UP lost a multiple platform articulated tofc off the southwest side of
the elevated wye just east of Union Station in St. Louis.
pslayton@inlink.com (Patrick Slayton)
==============
According to the UP PR department today CNW SD38-2 #6650 will be the first
CNW unit repainted into UP colors. It will enter the North Little Rock
paint shop on Friday 6/2. When it comes out it will be UP #2806 (numbered
after the ex-C&IM SD38-2s). It will then go to North Platte where it will
be placed in hump service.
Sean Graham-White
==============
While at Colton Crossing, Cajon Pass and Barstow Saturday, May 20th. I saw the following:
A UP stack train had EMD 7021 (in the all maroon paint scheme) as well as a
CNW Dash-9 as trailing units, headed towards LA.
At Yermo, NS 6600 (SD-60) was sitting on the east end of the yard.
Tim Harris
Have you ever gone on a train trip and been rocked, hit a shopping cart, got stopped by a detector, hit a tire on the tracks, and gone into an emergency stop -- all in one afternoon?
Well, I experienced this recently when I made a trip on Amtrak's Capitol train from Oakland to San Jose and return. The Capitol uses the SP's now infamous Hayward Line through the East Bay Area. This line has earned a dubious reputation among train crews, resulting from the frequent incidents of collisions with objects placed on the tracks, and more unfortunate collisions with automobiles and pedestrians (trespassers) resulting in loss of life. Almost daily, it seems, one hears of another incident on the Hayward Line.
On my recent trip, I decided to take a two hour round trip to San Jose to observe first hand the new Amtrak California double-decker equipment. Here's how it went:
Our train of five new California Cars along with an ex-Santa Fe El Capitan Diner-Lounge pulls out of the brand new Jack London Square station in Oakland, with a new F59PHI on the point.
Twenty minutes later, while traveling through Hayward at track speed of 79 miles per hour, we simultaneously are rocked by a group of youths along the tracks and hit a shopping cart on the track. (Shopping carts seem to be a favorite of those who delight in watching trains smashing into things.) One rock hits our new coach with a loud bang. I hear the engineer call out on the radio that we hit a shopping cart. We start to slow down, but the next detector says "No Defects" so we keep moving. Ten miles later we reach another detector in Fremont which urgently calls out "Stop your train! Stop your train!" The conductor mutters "Oh S---!" and we ease to stop.
Turns out the shopping cart we hit ten miles ago stayed wedged to the front of the engine. We must have been quite a sight. After the crew peels the remains of the shopping cart off, we're on our way again to San Jose. Upon arrival in San Jose, the train is turned and readied for the return trip to Oakland and points east, run by the same crew.
Once again, while flying through Hayward at 79 per, a thud is heard under the train, the engineer calls out "Hit a tire!" and we go into emergency. The unmistakable odor of burning brake shoes waffles up through the cars. Takes a while to stop going that fast! It turns out the tire impact had popped three air hoses. Head end power shuts down and all becomes dark and quiet in the cars. The crew goes down to clean up the mess and reconnect the hoses. Eleven minutes later, the air test is good, and off we go, arriving in Oakland half an hour late.
By the way, I like the new California Car equipment. The face-to-face
seating arrangements with tables for eating and working are great for
families, business travelers, and students. Railfans will find them handy
for spreading out your camera, scanner, timetable, and log. The seats all
align well with the big windows -- great visibility, especially from the top
deck. The ride is smooth and quiet. Our crew was courteous and friendly . .
. even with all of the incidents encountered along the way. All in a day's
work on the Hayward Line.
Fred Holmes
It was a cool trip out to Colorado with Gregg Fuhriman and Jim Lackner.. I know Jim through Gregg, who are both really great modelers and diesel-fans, and off we went!
we took a flight out from SFO on Thursday evening, 630pm, arriving in Denver's new International Airport around 1100pm. We grabbed our rentacar and drove straight over to the La Quinta Inn, which is in downtown Denver, overlooking the yard leads to the BN yard! :-) All we heard that night was the thrumming of SD9's over the hump, and freight cars slamming gently into each other as they were kicked onto yard tracks.. :-) Ahhh... it's nice to be on vacation! :-)
Trains During the night included:
On Friday morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the Dennys next to the hotel, and promptly went to Denver's 23rd St. Diesel facility (viewable from the balcony of our hotel). There we saw lots of the usuals: Santa Fe C30's (some of which on lease, I presume), BN SD40-2's, a few SDP40s (used locally for the Coors/E+C Beer Car trains), SD9's used for locals and hump/switching duties, and SD70MACs running in 3 unit sets up and down the joint line on Powder River<->Texas coal trains. Also saw two light grey "SP construction" chopnose GP7s (ex-CNW?) possibly being used for fiber optic construction trains at the BN Denver facility too.
Power on hand:
They are rebuilding the 23rd street overpass here, so down on shots were out of the question for this trip.. :-( Also wandered over to SP/DRGW's North Yard, which had a DRGW GP30 sticking out, and a SP MP15AC trundling around (I'll see what the numbers were from my shots).
After checking the facs in the morning, we went over to Caboose Hobbies. They had more HO detail parts than I have ever seen in my life.. enough parts for 3-4 good hobbyshops arranged along a 75 foot wall. The brass case (20 ft, six shelves) was also crammed sunshade-to-sunshade with coool Overland stuff. Fortunately for me, I showed incredible restraint, and only bought a few detail parts! :-)
Before driving south out of Denver, we also paid our respects to all the dead units and retirement candidates sitting outside of Burnham. Of note here were the cabless B36-7B locomotive, the SSW 7771 (still looking quite presentable), and 7755/7773 as well. Really sad to see these here. :-(
The afternoon was spent traversing the Joint line south of Denver on our drive to Pueblo. We stopped off at Santa Fe's "BIG LIFT", and saw the following GE surprise:
SF 8128/SF 8127/SF 5188/ SF 5029/ SF 8136/ SF 8148. All power was IDLING, boats and all!! I thought these C30s had given up the ghost months ago!
Next stop was at Palmer Lake where we saw our first SP AC4400CWs here... neeeat! Actually, we *heard* them first! whoppawhoppawhoppa.. 175/179 FF :-) Chased these things back up north for a few miles..
Also on the Joint line were:
[Saturday 6/10/95: ATSF+BN] Got up at 5am, drove east from Pueblo to La Junta, caught a westbound local headed for the Joint line just outside of La Junta with a mixed bag of GPs and SD's on the point. (5802/5005/5147/2000! GP7u!/3440?)
Once at La Junta, we checked in at the ATSF crew office, and found out that the only train for the day was the westbound Southwest Limited. We then drove south out of town to the first set of semaphores we could find at MP 572.3 (Timpas) and caught the SW splitting the blades there. #3 had 2 AMD103's and 1 DASH8-32BWH on the point+ 15 cars! impressive at 90mph..
Also caught a couple of trains on BN's Twin Mountain Subdivision south of
Trinidad. A nice line to railfan, as:
At Trinidad, we had the chance to talk to the engineer, who said that they don't like the SD70MACs because they slip too much in the rain, are poor luggers, and the visibility is lousy, amongst other things! Called the Flimsies Hotline that night to report that the BN line was washed out between Fort Worth and Amarillo, according to the engineer. No choice but to go north, as there would only be one or two "stub" trains Sunday due to the washout..
Saturday Night: [ Drove back from BN/ATSF land, and back thru Pueblo on our way over to Tennessee Pass ]
Sunday 6/11/95: Pueblo has large freight yards for all three of the host railroads. Lots of trains arr/dpt. in the morning when we were there on Sunday, so we just hit the diesel facilities, went to Mc Donalds, and got ahead of a couple of the westbounds to meet them up along the Arkansas River Canyon west of town. This is where the action is!
The Mighty DRGW/SP: Highlights included 4 MNGVC (Coal East, Taconite West) trains, powered with a minimum of three brand-spankin' new SP AC4400CW's on the point, with midtrain helpers of 4-5 big old six-axle EMDs up the east side of Tennessee Pass. That place is truly AMAZING!! Awesome scenery, plenty of train action, and good weather. Lots of nice shots can be had straight from the road, but I'd like to scout around some more when there's time next time. We chased a manifest freight for 50 miles that had a pair of AC4400CW's 121/167 on the point too! Saw 2 trains with DRGW power on the point, one eastbound had a solid set of five GP40's, four of which were DRGW, one CSX! (3112/CSX6068/3099/3088/3094! at Red Hill Tunnel MP 206.3)
Trains included:
After getting to Minturn (helper base near the top of Tennessee Pass), we witnessed another eastbound coal train grind into town with another 3 AC4400's on the point. These things are everywhere out here! After dark, we proceeded up to Vail, and found a room at a big fancy hotel there for $50/night! The room includes access to an outdoor hot tub, gym and so forth. Gregg and I had NO idea that such a yuppie ski playground (VAIL) would be located so close to a grimy DRGW helper district! heehee! :-)
Another surprise of the evening was that Bill left us a special message on the Flimsies hotline regarding upcoming DOT and SP inspection trains to run on Tennesee the next day or so! Darn.. wish we stuck around longer, but such is the working life! We *did* manage to see the Airslie on the back end of westbound #5 the next day however..
Monday was spent driving back into Denver, and shooting an Eastbound DRGW coal train descending down the Big Ten curves outside of town. Power here was BN 5088/+ 3 grimy SP SDs, with 2 more 7400-class SD's as midtrain helper.
We dropped off our then-new/now-tired rentacar back at the airport, weighted down with plenty of mud and exactly 1200 more miles on the odo meter!
Needless to say, a good time was had by all. I heartily recommend Tennessee Pass to all mainline-oriented rail photographers! That means YOU!!
Best Regards,
Harry wong
TAKING STOCK
Railroad Stock Report for Monday, 19 June 1995
--------------------------------------------------------
Market Data from Friday, 16 June 1995
Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 4510.79, up 14.52 on Friday.
----------------
Big Board (NYSE)
----------------
Line Symbol High Low Close Previous
===================================================================
ATSF SFX 24.125 23.875 24.125 23.875
Burlington Northern BNI 60.500 59.750 60.375 60.125
CSX CSX 73.875 72.875 72.875 73.000
Conrail CRR 53.125 52.250 52.875 52.875
Norfolk Southern NSC 65.375 64.625 65.375 64.750
Southern Pacific RSP 15.875 14.500 15.000 15.750
Union Pacific UNP 53.125 52.250 53.000 52.375
Illinois Central IC 34.875 34.750 34.750 34.875
Kansas City Southern KSU 36.625 36.375 36.500 36.500
Florida East Coast FLA 73.000 72.750 72.750 72.750
Sea Container SCRA 14.625 14.500 14.625 14.625
XTRA XTR 45.125 44.625 45.125 45.625
Greenbrier GBX 12.375 12.125 12.250 12.375
Wabash Natl. Corp. WNC 28.250 27.750 27.750 28.000
Trinity Ind. TRN 33.750 33.125 33.125 33.750
Ameri. President APS 23.500 23.375 23.500 23.375
------
NASDAQ
------
Line Symbol High Low Close Previous
===================================================================
J.B. Hunt JBHT N/A N/A 16.750 16.875
Wisconsin Central WCLX N/A N/A 49.250 49.250
RailTex RTEX N/A N/A 23.750 24.000
RailAmerica RAIL N/A N/A 4.625 4.750
Providence & Worc PWRR N/A N/A 8.625 8.625
Delaware Otsego DOCP N/A N/A 10.000 10.000
Steve... I read your 21 April "TRACK WARRANTS" posting on CompuServe in the TraiNet Fourm+ Thought I'd send you a few lines about a book I wrote back in 1993. It is on US railroad postage meter slogans... those machine printed postage impressions on office business mail that included an advertising slug in the design. Like the "Sleep Soft as a Kitten" slogan of the Chessie line. I have reviewed a few hundred impressions and tried to take the best examples for the book. It is the first such specialized book ever published on railroad meters in the US.
If you would be interested I can write you a few lines and send by E-Mail or fax the graphics to support the article. Sorry but I have no scanning facility operational. Do keep me in mind for photo copies of postage meters with RR related slogans in their design. I don't need originals, and I'm not offering to pay...
I'm a retired veteran and on a budget. Work now on maintenance staff in local city schools system. My snail mail address is POB 532, Manassas, VA 22110.
My
E-mail address will be in the header of this message.
Best regards & wishes...
HL :-)
"HOWARD L. LUCAS" <74354.751@compuserve.com>
PLEASE SEND THIS E-MAIL TO ALL YOUR RAILFAN BUDDIES.
To subscribe send an E-mail to Stevesln@aimnet.com and say, "sign me up."
