It might have been the crack

[bakupolo]

but I swear I just saw sone kind of enormous DD Union Pacific diesel roll by my office in Austin. It was pulling a special passenger train in UP livery - the 2nd last car was named "Colorado" (and was empty) and the last car was "Idaho" (and was full of people). At first I thought it was an E9 but it was too long and had more cooling fans on top than I could count - at least 6, maybe 7. It also had SD90MAC-type radiators but not as tall and longer length. It's heading North so I'm thinking Union Station in Dallas may be the destination.

[edbenton]

You just saw they ONLY operating DD40X 6936 the head of the Engineering Department loves to use her as a test tool.  As he put is nothing tells me that my MOW people are doing the jobs better than those 4 axle trucks under this beast.  She has 6600 HP 8 Traction motors and 2 16 cylinder 645 prime movers.  Basically she was a twin GP40 under one hood but the governor was set for 3300 per engine.

[JWhite]

It passed about 3 miles from my house on Saturday.  I got some pictures.  I'm sure I rode some of those cars on Operation Lifesaver trains in the early 90s.

 

Jeff 

[daveklepper]

Glad one DD40 is still alive!   Isn't this the largest operating diesel locomotive in the world and possibly the highest horsepower one as well?   I hope the UP keeps in good repair for a long time to come and then as part of its heritage fleet.

[silicon212]

It already is a part of the Heritage Fleet.

[bakupolo]

I googled DD40X wow - I know what a birdwatcher must feel like when a golden cheek warbler stops and cheeps at him. I feel really happy about seeing it - wish I had a camera along. It is a magnificant machine, trust me. I read that they could accelerate a train better than anything before or since - although those GE60s are pretty impressive with their rock trains.

 So later on in the after noon I watched a manifest pulled by 10 engines (only 3 were running - one of which was a blue SD50 - first one I ever saw) anyway a City of Austin Water Utilities truck was parked alongside the rail - about 4 inches from the rail and the train couldn't stop in time. The trains come around a blind 90-degree turn and slow way down, but it's a blind curve. So the train hit the truck head on at something less than 10 mph but the truck bounced back 10 or 15 feet like it was swatted by superman. Amazing damage for such a slow touch - the front right part of the truck was sheared off by the engine (SD70Ace) - nobody hurt. The engineer told me it was his first of the year (auto collision) and he averaged about 4. Again, no camera. All in all a good day for train watching.

[chad thomas]

I caught her at Portola a couple months back.

The museum also has an inoperable DDA40X (6948 I think) seen 3rd unit back.

[Lord Atmo]

he never came my way so i didn't see him