On Thursday we drove down to St. Cloud Minnesota to pick-up our grand kids. Taking highway 10 down that way follows the the old Northern Pacific mainline between Fargo N.D. and Mpls./St. Paul. We see lots of freight action on this route and saw two brand new locomotives in a solid darker than Sky Blue color with Winchester & Western livery. Never heard of the Winchester & Western! Wikipedia describes the line as doing business out east in Virgina, West Virgina, Maryland & New Jersey. What was interesting is that these were brand new locos (I'm not a modern rail fan, so don't have any idea what they were). So the W&W must be allowing the BNSF to get them dirty for them and they had a long way to go to get that way.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
W&W covered hoppers are a common sight on the Buffalo & Pittsburgh, or at least in Dubois, Pa.
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If they were a Montreal Locomotive Works product, they may have been new ones being delivered from the factory.
GE has some of their new Evolution series Tier 4 diesels on the road. This week engine nos 2022, 2023 and 2024 came to Grand Junction, CO on a UP freight. The were in the yard for a few days, receiving some kind of service (engine bay doors open, a tech working on them). They are a solid bright blue, no road name.
cacole If they were a Montreal Locomotive Works product, they may have been new ones being delivered from the factory.
Montreal is to the east of me and so is the W&W. I don't think a delivery would have had them heading west. Also these locomotives had Winchester & Western on them, so, the where owned and marked as such.
Maybe on lease or to pay back HP/hours used?
I did some googling around and all I found were older units in basic black paint, so these new ones are a bit of a mystery.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
If they're new MLW locomotives, they must be in some sort of a time warp: MLW hasn't been around since the mid-'70s, and their successor, Bombardier, exited the locomotive business in the mid-'80s.
Here's a different Winchester & Western paint scheme:
WINCHESTER+%26+WESTERN
Wayne
doctorwayne If they're new MLW locomotives, they must be in some sort of a time warp: MLW hasn't been around since the mid-'70s, and their successor, Bombardier, exited the locomotive business in the mid-'80s. Here's a different Winchester & Western paint scheme: WINCHESTER+%26+WESTERN Wayne
Wayne, I must have missed something, as I don't recall anyone saying anything about MLW. Number 752 in the photo just above the photo you referenced is about the right color blue. This pair would be similar to the rest of the locos BNSF is now using, not GPs.
NP2626as I don't recall anyone saying anything about MLW.
Cacole said MLW in his post. Actually he wrote Montreal Locomotive Works (as opposed to MLW, the Milwaukee Road).
O.K., I see MLW and I start thinking the Milwaukee Road automatically. What I saw looked like Dash9-44CW. However, it could be another of the modern diesels, which all look exactly alike to me
Hah! In Canada, MLW is/was Montreal Locomotive Works - it never occurred to me that it might be confused with MILW. I'm not sure why cacole mentioned Montreal Locomotive Works, though.
Anyway, yeah, lots of W&W photos in the thread of my link, although I don't recall seeing any of their really modern locos - wasn't aware that they had them.
Your are correct, Wayne the Milwaukee Road 's reporting marks were MILW, not MLW. I didn't even notice that there was a difference between the two acronyms at the time I read your post.
Run-throughs are much more common these days, you never know what you might see. We have the occasional BNSF or UP unit in consist on NS through Eastern PA, so it's not too far outside the realm of possibility to see W&W power on a BNSF train.
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Neither am I, really, and I live close enough to highly active tracks that I could walk there to watch. If I'm driving by when a train rolls through, I certainly look, but I don't make any effort just to be trackside. I could probably talk with a crew every morning if I stopped for coffee and a donut - the signal that often holds up trains heading through my town is conveniently located next to the parking lot of a bakery (not one of the chain places) that serves up some really good donuts and cakes, and it's not uncommon for one of the crew of a stopped train to run over and grab some coffee and food. On the other side of town, there's another signal near a diner that back in the Conrail days aquired an unofficial CP designation based on the name of the diner, since any train stopped for any length of time usually sent someone into the diner to pick up some food.
I can't think who just now, but it seems to me one the Minnesota shortline railroads has had a profitable side-business doing paintwork and perhaps even repairs or repowering of diesels for other railroads. I think I read in R&R or Trains a while back of BNSF or some other large railroad getting some used engines and sending them to this shortline to get repainted.
Anyway, if my memory is correct, it could be these units had gone to MN for repainting or repair. I guess they could be in some kind of run-through or other agreement. NS and CSX engines are common in the Twin Cities, hundreds of miles from their nearest trackage. Indiana RR units show up sometimes too.
BTW, yes MLW = Montreal Locomotive Works, MILW = Milwaukee Road.
wjstix BTW, yes MLW = Montreal Locomotive Works, MILW = Milwaukee Road.
NP2626 wjstix BTW, yes MLW = Montreal Locomotive Works, MILW = Milwaukee Road. BTW, you should have read the entire thread: You are correct, Wayne the Milwaukee Road 's reporting marks were MILW, not MLW. I didn't even notice that there was a difference between the two acronyms at the time I read your post. This was good as it caused me to look up Montreal Locomotive Works and view what is stated about the company. It stopped producing locomotives in 1985, so this would rule it out as far as my original query was concerned.
I did, that's why I said "yes" at the start, as I was confirming / agreeing with the earlier post.
Oh, good, you did see that!
Similar too the railroad entitled Winchester and Western, I had never heard of Montreal Locomotive Works, let alone MLW (this is also not meant to belittle our Canadian friends). Since MLW has been out of business for decades and we are talking about very modern and brand new locomotives, that MLW even entered the conversation was a mistake on Cacole's part.
Before I posted this thread, I went to Google and searched for Winchester & Western Railroad and found all I needed, on this railroad. This thread was only a comment about how you might see any railroad's locomotives on any other railroad, across this country!
There are a lot of Winchester & Western marked cars in frac sand service. Many have had the reporting marks changed from WW to a four letter one ending in X, such as WWUX. (Those by the way, are assigned to Unimin Corporation a major frac sand supplier and customer of the WW.)
Looking at pictures of W&W engines, I noticed that some are actually owned by lease companies and sublettered for them. I wonder if these engines might also be leased for frac train service by the W&W for Unimin (or other associated frac sand companies) for use off line. They might get a better rate on their unit train if they supply engines. At least they would be assured that there would be power for the train.
For a while in the early 1980s, the W&W operated a section of the RI main line in Illinois. They provided interim service to a facility that was owned by one of W&W's major customers until other railroads, eventually CSX, took over operation of the line.
Jeff
These engines where at the head of a tank unit train heading to the Bakken oil field. Trains that we see as almost every other train on the lines now. A tie in with oil sands does make some sense.
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
jrbernierConsidering the date this thread started, I suspect those blue locomotives were GE Tier 4 test engines on that unit oil train. There at least 4 of them roaming the BNSF in the Twin Cities area then.
jrberner, would they have been marked Winchester and Western? If so, that answers the question.
I saw a matched set like this westbound on a manifest between Detroit Lakes and Dillworth on Sunday afternoon. I got a pic with my phone but can't figure out how to post it. The units were newer GEVO's with brand new paint (The trucks weren't even dirty). Royal blue bodies with black frames and trucks, white stripe along the frame. The lead was No 2027 with no other identifying marks. The numbers were on the cab sides with maybe small initials below them. The units were working by themselves, not dead in transit.
I've seen similar GATX lease units, but can't confirm that's what they are.
Here's an online pic of what I saw, except No 2022.
http://www.railfan220.com/2014/09/motive-power-developments.html
GECX 2024, Tier 4 test unit.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=503451&nseq=13
NP2626 jrbernier Considering the date this thread started, I suspect those blue locomotives were GE Tier 4 test engines on that unit oil train. There at least 4 of them roaming the BNSF in the Twin Cities area then. jrberner, would they have been marked Winchester and Western? If so, that answers the question.
jrbernier Considering the date this thread started, I suspect those blue locomotives were GE Tier 4 test engines on that unit oil train. There at least 4 of them roaming the BNSF in the Twin Cities area then.
No, the would not be lettered for W&W. They would be lettered for GE, as GECX under the cab unit numbers, but definitely not lettering for W&W. So, we are either talking about different units, or someone goofed in saying one or the other..... But the GE Tier4 test units are definitely not lettered for Winchester&Western, or W&W as the case maybe....
Edited to reflect accurate GECX reporting marks....
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