Thanks for the help. I spent some time on the rail pictures.net site, which I must say is a lot easier to search than rrphotoarchives site, and think I am good setting my time period in the 2003-2004 time frame. It looked like BNSF was still using a lot of SD 40-2's then.
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php
You do not need to sign up for searching.
If you go to the search feature on railpictures you can type in the the railroad, loco type, the year you are looking for and the state you want to model and see what pops up. Do that for the SD40-2's and when you find the year of pictures and the area, keep that area and type in the next loco model.
That's how I found what road numbers and loco type the CN was running on the Valley Sub in Wisconsin. I wanted to see how much/many of my WC locomotives I could keep running with CN in 2005.
Good luck
Tom
I can only offer anecdotal evidence about my area, but the SD40-2s were pretty common in road service right up until the 2008 traffic collapse. After that they mostly were confined to the yards.
This may help.........
http://www.trainpix.com/bnsf/
....especially this bit.......
http://www.trainpix.com/bnsf/ROSTER.HTM
........but I'll let you go crosseyed.
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Srwill2,
I don't know if there are reference books on the BNSF that list each locomotives and their specifics - i.e. engine specs, dimensions, builder, road numbers, mo/year built, years in service, change in road numbers, sold, scrapped, etc. I model the New York Central and there is both a separate steam and diesel book listing those specifics. Whenever I want to determine if an early diesel was around the same time as a specific steam locomotive, I compare both references.
The Diesel Shop is a great online resource that you may or may not have discovered yet. It lists some specifics but not that many. Although not inexpensive, Morning Sun Books may also have what you are looking for.
Hope that helps...
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I'm trying to find a source that lists a RR engine roster by year. Specifically, I'm trying to find the BNSF loco roster. I want to set my time period early enough that SD 40-2's were still in regular service and late enough that SD-70's and Dash 9's were in use also. Obviously it's past the mid 90's, but trying to figure out how much longer the SD-40's were a significant part of the fleet.
Thanks for any help.