The Mountain Division
The Hill Job rolls through residential Tacoma behind a pair of former demonstrator SD70ACe-P4s sandwiching a GP23ECO. The SD70ACe-P4 was EMD's solution to the GE ES44C4 featuring a B1-1B axle configuration where the axle closest to the fuel tank is unpowered. BNSF bought 20 of these engines in 2014.
The SD70ACe-P4s make up the largest engines on the Tacoma Rail roster and are regularly assigned to the Mountain Division which features a 3-4% grade coming out of Tacoma. The Milwaukee Road historically operated a roster of 2-6-6-2 Mallets on this stretch of territory that were initially built for the Pacific Extension mainline west of Harlowton, Montana but were relegated to Tacoma after electrification. Following dieselization, an EMD F7A/B mother-slug set replaced the Mallets and operated out of Tacoma until the Milwaukee Road abandoned all operations west of Miles City, Montana in 1980.
The Mountain Division
The Hill Job rolls through residential Tacoma behind a pair of former demonstrator SD70ACe-P4s sandwiching a GP23ECO. The SD70ACe-P4 was EMD's solution to the GE ES44C4 featuring a B1-1B axle configuration where the axle closest to the fuel tank is unpowered. BNSF bought 20 of these engines in 2014.
The SD70ACe-P4s make up the largest engines on the Tacoma Rail roster and are regularly assigned to the Mountain Division which features a 3-4% grade coming out of Tacoma. The Milwaukee Road historically operated a roster of 2-6-6-2 Mallets on this stretch of territory that were initially built for the Pacific Extension mainline west of Harlowton, Montana but were relegated to Tacoma after electrification. Following dieselization, an EMD F7A/B mother-slug set replaced the Mallets and operated out of Tacoma until the Milwaukee Road abandoned all operations west of Miles City, Montana in 1980.