http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-splitbyrail,0,4305949.story
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/6290612.html
Rich
Edit: warning removed as possible bad link above removed.
this is yet another sign of a deepening recession. not only freight cars get idled, locomotives are stored too. first to get parked are the rentals which were roaming everywhere as recently as last summer. next the railroads start to park their older, or unusual locomotives, if it is severe enough of a downturn, even the best and newest get parked for short periods. and the scrapyards start to do a booming business cutting up surplus railroad equipment. we haven't gotten quitee that far yet, but there are long lines of surplus locomotives both on norfolk southern at conway, pa and on csx at cumberland, md
Quotenext the railroads start to park their older, or unusual locomotives,
like BNSF 1460.....sad to see that one go
http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/6/2/9/2629.1161781200.jpg (http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/6/2/9/2629.1161781200.jpg)
You think the railroads are going through tough times? They just closed two hospitals in NYC - both in neighborhoods where people need health care.
In the first message in this thread, I had posted a photo of 150 UP locomitves on the dead track in a yard in Fontana, CA. Some are SD70s. The photo was taken Feb. 2009. I removed the link because I was told the link seemed to have malware.
Rich
word has it that 40 or 50 bnsf sd40-2s have made their way to altoona on the norfolk southern for storage. i will be going there to-morrow and will try to get pics. even with all these locomotives stored, things are not yet anywhere near as bad as in the early 1980s. here in the northeast the railroads had locomotives parked by the hundreds, and for years they had gondolas parked anywhere they could find room. so far, that hasn't happpened here.
Out here, the yard in Kankakee doesn't seem to change much, but that usual. What isn't is some days we don't have much switch work, and CN usually works the pair of Geeps down the line on the storage siding. Lately, they haven't been given their "1-hour a day of exercise". As everyone known, the economy is not doing well. Things like this should be allowed. Although, some say trains are doing better for they can carry more than 50x more freight per gallon then a truck. Trucks are getting some glory from trains with the Intermodal services... Hey, why not? Even I can't stand to see a day without a good 'ol Peterbilt.
Josh