UP/SantaFe/SP Merger

[Anonymous]

Was trainwatching this AM in south Denver Co. along BNSF tracks & saw string of what I believe were SD-70's with no cars. Two were still in SP livery and the rest were in UP yellow. The SP's had their original numbers obliterated and 3-digit numbers painted on. Number boards matched new numbers. UP's were numbered 59xx, 60xx, and 71xx (silly me; I didn't have a pen with me). SP's were 189 and another number I don't remember. The front 3 loco's (guessing from smoke) were live; the rest dead. Can anyone tell me for sure what I was looking at?

[Anonymous]

Was trainwatching this AM in south Denver Co. along BNSF tracks & saw string of what I believe were SD-70's with no cars. Two were still in SP livery and the rest were in UP yellow. The SP's had their original numbers obliterated and 3-digit numbers painted on. Number boards matched new numbers. UP's were numbered 59xx, 60xx, and 71xx (silly me; I didn't have a pen with me). SP's were 189 and another number I don't remember. The front 3 loco's (guessing from smoke) were live; the rest dead. Can anyone tell me for sure what I was looking at?

[edblysard]

Most likley a power move, no need to have all motors running, waste of fuel. UP and BNSF share a lot of trackage rights, may have just been the fastest route back home for the UP. Uncle Pete is slowley repainting some, key word there, some of the SP motors into the yellow and gray, but for now, they are just painting over the old numbers, and slaping on decals, cheaper than repainting the whole thing.

They are also adding a Y to the end of numbers assigned to yard locomotives, so you may see two locomotives, a 189Y in yard service and yard to yard transfer service, and a 189 road unit.

Best bet is a power move over BNSF track via trackage rights.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[edblysard]

Most likley a power move, no need to have all motors running, waste of fuel. UP and BNSF share a lot of trackage rights, may have just been the fastest route back home for the UP. Uncle Pete is slowley repainting some, key word there, some of the SP motors into the yellow and gray, but for now, they are just painting over the old numbers, and slaping on decals, cheaper than repainting the whole thing.

They are also adding a Y to the end of numbers assigned to yard locomotives, so you may see two locomotives, a 189Y in yard service and yard to yard transfer service, and a 189 road unit.

Best bet is a power move over BNSF track via trackage rights.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[mudchicken]

Ed is right as usual... you saw light engines (9 by my count) going back to Denver (North Yard & Burnham) ... Saw them pass through Castle Rock, CO this morning about 10:30AM....With Pueblo now being a stub-ended piece of UP's system now (except for trackage rights), these engines most likely collected at Pueblo when there wasn't a balanced movement of trains over the weekend (including remote control pusher sets on the coal trains)...some of the engines also were probably due for their mandatory FRA inspection(s) and were deadheading back to Denver for inspection prior to being put into use again.

All were on the northward track of the jointline which is old ATSF north of Sedalia. Where I saw them in Castle Rock (30+ miles south of Denver), they were on the old DRGW (now UP)....

[mudchicken]

Ed is right as usual... you saw light engines (9 by my count) going back to Denver (North Yard & Burnham) ... Saw them pass through Castle Rock, CO this morning about 10:30AM....With Pueblo now being a stub-ended piece of UP's system now (except for trackage rights), these engines most likely collected at Pueblo when there wasn't a balanced movement of trains over the weekend (including remote control pusher sets on the coal trains)...some of the engines also were probably due for their mandatory FRA inspection(s) and were deadheading back to Denver for inspection prior to being put into use again.

All were on the northward track of the jointline which is old ATSF north of Sedalia. Where I saw them in Castle Rock (30+ miles south of Denver), they were on the old DRGW (now UP)....

[mudchicken]

Second Guess: Power was from military trains bringing equipment back to Ft. Carson (Colorado Springs/Kelker)....If there's a bunch of flatcars waiting to be unloaded and or spotted by the military (Army), then this could be the story as well.

FYI-On the northward track from Pueblo, the joint line changes ownership 5 times plus once between the C&S/BN and the old ATSF......When BNSF changed the ATSF mileposts between Denver and Pueblo to match the old C&S system, it became a lot harder to tell where a given train was and what it was doing. You now basically have duplicate mileposts on (for the most part) separate rights-of-way, MP0-MP120....

[mudchicken]

Second Guess: Power was from military trains bringing equipment back to Ft. Carson (Colorado Springs/Kelker)....If there's a bunch of flatcars waiting to be unloaded and or spotted by the military (Army), then this could be the story as well.

FYI-On the northward track from Pueblo, the joint line changes ownership 5 times plus once between the C&S/BN and the old ATSF......When BNSF changed the ATSF mileposts between Denver and Pueblo to match the old C&S system, it became a lot harder to tell where a given train was and what it was doing. You now basically have duplicate mileposts on (for the most part) separate rights-of-way, MP0-MP120....

[Anonymous]

just one other little tidbit, if it was an SP 189 it was an AC4400CW, not an SD70

[Anonymous]

just one other little tidbit, if it was an SP 189 it was an AC4400CW, not an SD70