Virtual Vacation #8
The long hard slog up Crawford Hill.
The BNSF shifts Powder River Basin coal south on mile-long trains. Crawford Hill, tucked up in the north-west corner of Nebraska and the Nebraska National Forest, impedes progress for loaded trains and this service will have another four helper units on the rear.
The BNSF doesn't seem to be much of a fanboy for high horsepower EMD units, much preferring the GE Evolution as its standard heavy hauler, but at the time of my visit EMD's were in the majority here. SD70MAC #9699 leads here, wearing the Burlington Northern Executive livery, the locomotive was delivered before the merger with the Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe in 1996.
I don't know the current situation, but I have read somewhere that the SD70's are now being retired from duty...
1 October 2015
Virtual Vacation #8
The long hard slog up Crawford Hill.
The BNSF shifts Powder River Basin coal south on mile-long trains. Crawford Hill, tucked up in the north-west corner of Nebraska and the Nebraska National Forest, impedes progress for loaded trains and this service will have another four helper units on the rear.
The BNSF doesn't seem to be much of a fanboy for high horsepower EMD units, much preferring the GE Evolution as its standard heavy hauler, but at the time of my visit EMD's were in the majority here. SD70MAC #9699 leads here, wearing the Burlington Northern Executive livery, the locomotive was delivered before the merger with the Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe in 1996.
I don't know the current situation, but I have read somewhere that the SD70's are now being retired from duty...
1 October 2015