What is the rarest locomotive, rail car, or any other peice of equipment you've seen??

[trolleyboy]

Rarity that I've seen in the last two days a pair of CN GMD1's still in the Zebra sceme pulling raillinks steel train through Brantford. TB

[UPTRAIN]

Gotta be the Challenger, the 1522...the UP United Way Unit, BN 1991...I've been really fortunate to see almost every special paint scheme since 1990.

[coborn35]

A rare find I saw over the winter was a FM in operating condition and a IC F-unit in perfect condition. Also this lineup of 4 F-units all in perfect running condition. I do not know if these are rare or not but i see on a regular basis NW5 GN#192, SD18 DMIR#193, McGiffert log loader and a DMIR mallet, and have been in the cab of all of them multiple times:)

[anb740]

Well let's see. I've seen a lot of rare stuff, but my catch of a Trident missile car a few months ago probably took the cake. Only five known in existence. (my apologies for those who've seen the pic already)

http://anb740.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=51972

Want more crazy stuff, here ya go!
Pulpwood car still lettered for the Ga RR: http://anb740.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=50872

Cannonball #4 2-8-2 steam locomotive...on a flatcar:
http://anb740.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=92028

all for now.
anb740

[Anonymous]

NS 4610 in the Southern heritage paint

[espeefoamer]

I saw an EMD model 40 switcher at Traveltown in L.A. I saw the GM Aerotrain quite often on the UP I was 5 years old.There were only two of these built.

[Anonymous]

I saw a Milwaukee Road F-7 being pulled by CSX to the Chattanooga, TN railway museum a couple of months ago.

[Overmod]

Peter --

Don't post much more, either positive or negative. Just happened to see this topic the day after I saw the unit itself in consist and remarked to myself that the thing had to be rare...

2249 is a GP-38B -- in other words, a cabless GP-38 that isn't a slug. I don't know of any others, and cabless hood units have always been exotic to me anyway.

[Anonymous]

OK, I really didn't see this myself ..but as a long time railroad employee I've had a few friends that were around much longer... most are dead now ..This one I would believe anything he told me...As for me I'm in my 38th year with UP (formerly SP) as as locomotive engineer....He told me that early in his career as a switchman (he was an older fellow at the time about 35 years ago) he had orders to take an old coach to the scrap yard. While riding on the car he said he saw a sign stenciled inside the car that said " DO NOT SHOOT BUFFALO FROM VESTIBULE DOORS" .. Well this is my Little
contribution ..Carry On

[Anonymous]

I would have to say a side dump car on a CSX train that still had L&N reporting marks.

[Anonymous]

In 'real life": There were four (4) Fairbanks Morse model P-12-42 SPEED MERCHANT locomotives built,(1957-1958), two for the B&M and two for the New Haven. I have ridden behind two of these and have explored the cabs of all four.
in "muesum" life, there are two EMD lightweight train locomotives (Model LWT-12) preserved. have visited both of these locos in Museums in St Louis and in Green Bay WI. There were only three of these locos.
Rarer still, I guess, were the two lead cars used on NH's streamlined "ROGER WILLIAMS" RDC train. I used to commute on these fairly regularly.

[M636C]

Overmod,

Is this the first positive, rather than negative posting in a while or have I missed them?

I don't have a current BNSF roster handy - what is 2249?

Peter

[Overmod]

Most recent interesting rarity: BNSF 2249, in the middle of a 5-locomotive consist, traversing the yard in south Memphis very early Saturday morning. Unless I'm very mistaken, BNSF has just this one...

[lonewoof]

Saw today, parked in the CSX yard: US DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION SAFETY DIVISION #2001T. Looks like a 70-foot-long double-ended Winnebago.
Does anyone know what this car does? Inspect track? check signals? It didn't look like it was self-propelled, but might be.
I got a couple pictures, but it will be a while before I shoot up that roll of film and can get one posted...

[chad thomas]

I don't know if this qualifies, but I thought this was rare.
My father and I went on a weeklong railfanning trip starting in LA, we went to Sandpoint,Id. then east to Billings,Mt. then Butte down to Salt Lake City and back to LA. On this trip we had several encounters with an LMX B39-8. I can't recall what number. It was as if it were following us. The first sighting was on a westbound between Spokane and Sandpoint. The second time was around Butte on a eastbound Montana Rail Link train. Then several days later it showed up around Las Vegas on a westbound (seeing a BN unit on a UP line was a rarity in its own right). And finally on a eastbound in Cajon pass. What are the odds of that?????

[METRO]

Back in High School, I was on the track team. We had a track meet at a suburban school that was right next to a CNW line. Well I was standing by the tracks with a few of my teamates after my races and along the line rolls a FM switcher. First and last time I've ever seen a FM unit period. It had to be on its last few months of service though as it was so covered in rust and road dirt that I couldn't even make out a unit number. It also sounded like the prototypical equiviant of an un-lubricated Athearn engine.

And when I was back in school, I was railfaning on then SOO trackage and saw one of the SRS rebuilt doodlebugs.

~METRO

[daveklepper]

Rode the Boston - NY turbotrain at least five times. It did last about two years or more in operation. First ran into Grand Central, then after the NH was merged into PC and into the Amtrak era, ran into Penn. Enjoyed sitting in the pod behind the engineer, a great way to railfan the line. Highest speed reached was 110 mph, and that was not on the 100 mph track between "Boston Switch" north of Providence and Route 128, but between Rye and New Rochelle. We were routed west on the eastbound express track which had recently been relayed with welded rail, and the engineer did not want to miss his slot at the complex New Rochelle junction (Shell interlocking). For a while there was a 3:55 or 4:00 timing into Penn Station with a 10 minute connection to a 3:25 times Metroliner to Washington (the original mu equipment) that gave an approximately 7-1/2 hours Boston - Washington timing.

[greyhounds]

Let's see, it had to be:

1) Rock Island DL-109 re-engined by EMD on the head of the Peoria Rocket.

2) Those RS1325's on the C&IM that ran through Manito, IL on a regular basis.
(I have absolutely no idea why the railroad bought them, unless EMD was selling 'em cheap)

3) US Army Transportation Corps 2-8-0 #607 designed for European clearances and preserved in the Army Transportation Museum at Ft. Eustis, VA. (I ran that thing when it was pulled out of the museum and operated over the Army track on the fort.)

[Anonymous]

Although most of these locomotives are unoperateable, I've seen a UP 4-12-2
3 hesilers (one was owned by sunkist ! ), a SP streamlined alantic (rare) , a WP
2-8-0 , & a logging 2-6-6-0 (small for a mallet). Does a RG&W GP-35 sighting
on Dec 15 2004 count ?

[Glen Ellyn]

I think the rarest thing I have ever seen was an S-2 Green Mountain deisel attatched to Union Pacific #3300. ofcourse

[morseman]

In the early 50's at the Montreal St.Laurent CN yard
there was a flat car with 3 large wooden vats,
with the name of a pickling company on the vats.
they were the width of the car and about four feet high.
I believe they were destined for a pickling company
about a mile away.

In the same yard I noticed several trains with five or six locos destined
for the scrap heap. They had their driving rods removed and the rods
were in the engines tenders. These trains were part of a regular
freight consist .

[Cribbercat]

I've seen, operated, and repaired a Loram "Cribbing Machine". Only 2 were built as prototypes. Both are on site at Navajo Generating Station in No. Az. The 455 is a parts machine after being hit with a loaded coal train, Unit #6004 in the lead. The 456 is in operating condition and goes out occasionally. Thats how I got my nickname "cribbercat".

[CP5415]

I've only seen one in my lifetime, even though I've seen it several times.
CPR H1b 4-6-4 Hudson 2816.

Gordon

[espeefoamer]

In 1978 I saw the Washington (DC)Terminal Quarter Horse switcher. This was built in Romania.Does anyone know what happened to that unit after that?
I have seen all three South Shore Little Joes and thier line car 1100.This was rebuilt from an Indiana Railroad interurban coach.I have seen Jersey Central boxcab 1000 at the B&O museum in Baltimore.This was the first successful diesel electric unit built. I saw the CB&Q Pioneer Zephyr at the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry.I saw the Canadian National boxcab electrics in Montreal just before they were retired.
I also saw Amtrak's UA turbotrain in storage,and one of the center cars from the New Haven Roger Williams train.I also saw Amtrak's French turbo train.

[Bob-Fryml]

During the summer of 1995 I was driving southwards along a South Dakota state highway that paralleled the Rapid City - Hermosa - Dakota Jct. branch that Union Pacific had acquired through its CNW-UP merger. As I approached Dakota Jct., the tri-weekly evening freight trundling westbound towards Crawford, Nebr. came into view. I pulled up to the road crossing and with camera in hand snapped the last exposure of Kodachrome left on the roll. It was a good shot, a nice three-quarters wedge view, but it didn't capture the real prize in that train consist. Found about midway in this mixed merchandise local freight was a rather nicely aged Minneapolis & St. Louis two bay covered hopper bearing its original paint, no secondary reporting marks, and completely graffiti free! To hell with the locomotive, that little covered hopper was the true rarity of the year. Just think, 35-years after Heineman absorbed "The Louie" and it was still around!

Yes, I've seen CGW covered hoppers rebuilt or refurbished by the C.& N.W. as well as CGW company service fuel tanks, but only one original piece of "Louie" rolling stock.

[cnw1995]

A CGW caboose now in work train service for the UP

[spbed]

I would have to say the DHRR wooden president car that they had stored at that time in a barn in Albany NY. Supposely the car goes back to the inception of the DHRR & was used for board meetings.

[edbenton]

For me it would have to have been a SDL39 up on the WC in the mid 90's wish I had gotten a pic of it then there were only 10 of them ever built. Second would have to be UP 6936 pulling freight on the old Golden State route in early 1998 during the meltdown of the UP.

[passengerfan]

I guess I grew up at a fortunate time I was able to see and ride the Pioneer Zephyr while it was stiil operational. I rode the CN Turbo's many times between Toronto and Montreal.
And following is a list of just a few of the passenger trains I rode before they were absorbed by Amtrak.
Coast Daylight, Empire Builder, North Coast Limited, Super Chief, El Capitan, San Diegan, Cascade, Western Star, Mainstreeter, Denver Zephyr, California Zephyr, Twentieth Century Limited, Broadway Limited, New England States, Canadian, Super Continental, Panorama, Ocean, Scotian, Chaleur, Texas Chief, Sunset, International, Winnipeg Limited, Caribou Dayliner and many others.