Rarest thing you have seen in person

[Anonymous]

What is the rarest loco or RR car that you have seen?When I went to CA over the week of July 4th I saw two of the ATSF "Super Hoppers". Those are the 5-unit silver articulated covered hoppers.

[cbq9911a]

The preserved Baldwin Centercab DT-6-6-2000 at the Illinois Railway Museum (MN & S 21).  Rode in the cab while it was being moved to the diesel leads.  BA-bumph!  BA-bumph! BA-bumph! (Engineer shuts down engines) silence.

[Anonymous]

The last of the E7s at the Railroad Museum

of PA in Strasburg:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=100925

 

Dave

 

[chad thomas]

SP Rotary snowplows & Snow service GP38-2s

UP geometry car.

Loram RG 8 three times, Even got a personal tour of it.

Expirimental 7 axle BN SDP40-2

SP 4449

SP&S 700

UP 3985 & 844

AT&SF 3751

UP DDA40X 6936

UP E units

SP olympic unit (see avatar)

SP Sultzer powered Popsicles

Amtrak F59PHACs pulling the German ICE train on tour

[Jim Wrinn]

Back about 1985, NS sent one of the SR FP7s southbound on the main line with a GE generator load on a Schnabel car, two dome cars bound for Hayne shop, and a GE caboose.

Very strange. Jim

[PBenham]

I am among those that can say I saw both of CP's one of a kinds, 8921 the RSD17, on three occasions, twice in Toronto and once in Hamilton! As for 4744, their M640, I saw that from a Motel on Ile Perrault, west (ouest) of Montreal, on the turn to Ottawa. She didn't return with the rest of the power, as she'd taken a near Ottawa, and had to be set out there. I have seen pix of the two together, so that's the way some one could top this! Then there was the day I was schlepping to work and saw my one and only P30CH on a CSX OCS train on the Belt line here in Mudville far too long ago. But then there was getting into the cab of a Lehigh Valley U23B fresh from Erie, and hearing the engineer say "This is newer than anything I've run or driven!"  I asked him about the GP38-2s and GP38ACs and he said, "They had been run into (Buffalo) on N&W, and they got broken in, and didn't feel like these babies (did)." Or sniffing around in the cab of an LV C628 (641) in the Sayre deadline, then seeing it five months later on a Conrail coal drag, very much alive and smoking.

[JoeKoh]

the all american locomotive B&O chessie 3802 although it was restenciled for csx and numbered 2002

southern 4610 roaming the wabash tracks in northern indiana

and the cps 2816 coming for a visit on CSX and its service stop in hire road yard.made matts 3rd birthday really special.

stay safe

joe

[CopCarSS]

Well a lot of the usual stuff...but my fav. of the "rare things" has to be seeing a K-27 going over Cumbres Pass at 1:00 AM or so. I always like the K-27's more than the larger Mike's, and there's something about being woken at 1:00 in the morning by a steam whistle, running over to the tracks in my pajamas and cathcing the crew watering a beautiful loco at the top of a 4% grade. Magic!

I hope I get to see #463 running again someday.

[CShaveRR]

When you're into freight cars, rare sightings become almost commonplace!

I have several one-car rosters on my list of things seen, and several one-of-a-kind cars from larger rosters.

I'm hoping to go out soon and see UP's CNW heritage unit again.  There's only one of those, too!

Today's rare sighting was a NAHX covered hopper that had formerly been lettered PPU, with the same number.  I've seen stuff like that before, but this was a new series for me.

 

[One Track Mind]

Guess this would count even if I didn't actually "see" it...but the George Bush locomotive went by here under a blue tarp on the way to Texas.

[UPTRAIN]

I guess the rarest thing I've seen was EMD GP38-2 MP 2301, the last unit painted for MP on UP's roster, I got to see, ride, and operate it just 38 days before it was repainted in UP colors Poplar Bluff, MO.

http://www.pbrail.org/MP_2103.JPG

 

Also, UP 844, 949, 951, 963B, 1982, 1988, 2001, 2002, 3300, 3985, 6936, and others (the first 6 this year!)

[UPTRAIN]

Guess this would count even if I didn't actually "see" it...but the George Bush locomotive went by here under a blue tarp on the way to Texas.

I would have gotten to see that, but it went down the old Mo-Pac, and not down the Cotton Belt.

[One Track Mind]

Hey Zach - yeah I was lucky to see it but I missed getting the shot. Have a good time in Rochelle.

[mudchicken]

Southern San Luis Valley RR one of a kind locomotive D-500 running at Blanca, Co....

CopCarss: Have you seen it? (for the rest of you folks.....neener, neener!)

 

 

[METRO]

In a museum, the Pioneer Zephyr at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago

In the wild, an Alco S1 at the port of Milwaukee, the Conrail OCS train in Buffalo, a Metro North EMD FL-9 in NYC lightning Stripes in NYC and I regularly see CP and CN Drapers here in Milwaukee.

Cheers!
~METRO

[espeefoamer]

As a small child I saw the GM Aerotrain running as the UP City of Las Vegas.I saw two  of the three ALCo diesel hydraulic units in dead storage in Roseville.I also saw the last A-B set of FTs in storage in Mexico.I saw an A-B set of Santa Fe PAs in storage in San Bernardino.

[UPTRAIN]

What hydraulic units were those?

[Modelcar]

....One of the rarest sights would be:  GM's TRAIN OF TOMORROW....We were in high school and the S&C of the B&O {a coal hauler}, was host of the train.  School let us out to make the short trip to the tracks to watch it pass.  Location: Kantner, Pa.  Time:  About 1947.  Stainless fluted domed cars, one of a kind....

[Andrew Falconer]

One of the BN SD60MAC Diesel-Electric Locomotives, just months before being sold by BNSF. It was on an eastbound CN train in the South Bend Subdivision. I was driving towards the tracks when I saw it roll towards Battle Creek. Only 3 SD60MACs were ever built.

Union Pacific United Way SD40-2 on the Canadian National-GTW mainline.

Andrew

[SchemerBob]

I've seen a lot of interesting locomotives, but not really anything "rare". Some of these engines/cars include BNSF 7695, the only wedgie with yellow lettering; BNSF 2003, a GP38-2 with the new logo; A NS Dash 9-40CW, a BNSF SD40-2 and CSX SD40-2 on the same train; one of Amtrak's "Adirondack" baggage cars (it was on the California Zephyr); a couple Horizon cars on the California Zephyr (I saw this two times); the Loram Rail Grinder in operation in Rutledge, Missouri; an HLCX SD40-2 pulling a coal train all by itself (!!); a BNSF B23-7, one locomotive type not seen too much anymore; plus lots of other interesting combinations. Not anything real unusual, but it is something different to see around here. I'm still looking for my first SD70ACe.

[Andrew Falconer]

The SD70ACe Units have been the last units on many CN freight trains.

[Andrew Falconer]

What was very rare was the time the Montana Rail Link SD45 Locos visited the CN Mainline in Michigan. How did that power swap happen between CN-BNSF-MRL? I saw and heard the MRL SD45s in Montana in 1993. Then I saw some MRL SD45 units in Michigan in 2005.

Andrew

[txhighballer]

Growing up I saw a Santa Fe grain train with 17 F units blasting by my grandfathers' house. On another occasion,although I did not know it at the time,I saw the last F unit powered freight train on the Santa Fe. I even took a picture of it with a Kodak Instamatic.

[caldreamer]

D&RGW F7 ABBA set in yeloow black & silver scheme, coming thru Alvizo, California on the head end of a freight train.  Helium tank cars and Westinghouse schnavel cars with reactor loads.  

 

[silicon212]

I once saw an SP consist of two AC4400CWs, three GP60s and an SD7.  The SD7 was the lead unit.  I also once saw a Schnabel car set out at Mesa siding with a 400 ton electric transformer on it, bound for Chino Valley.

[Anonymous]

I have seen UP 844, the G.W.Bush unit, CNW 8572 & 8575 and the lasdt CNW AC44 before they were patched, MRL FP45, ex-BN LPG SD40-2 (with the flared radiators),a long hood forward running C40-8 on he UP, and 13 Mid-South locos in one place just two weeks ago! 

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I'll start with NJT GG1 4877, painted in full PRR tuscan red with pinstripes, being exchanged for a pair of NJT E8A's on the NY&LB at South Amboy.

EL lightweight coach among P70's on the Valparaiso suburban local in 1978.

IC C636 1100 at the RSA show in 1968.

CWI RS1 working a wreck train in Hegewisch.

Oliver Iron Mining Baldwin cow-calf sets in the dead line in Virginia MN in 1976.

Alco cow-calf sets at Minntac in 1981.

Please excuse my insufferable bragging, but 40+ years of watching trains will turn up a few gems.

[edbenton]

For me it would have to have been yesterday.  BNSF 561 and sister 562 freshly and I mean you could still smell the paint fresh.  They were both in the Red and Sliver Warbonnet thanks to a cause in the lease that is the only scheme those units can be painted in.

[dekemd]

The rarest thing I have seen was last year when I caught the one and only SD50M-3 #5000 on the old Clinchfield line in NC.

[back_pack]

Milwaukee Road 261 with her trailing truck derailed at the CNW depot in Green Bay, Wisconsin around the time of her first trip...never saw that mentioned in the railroad press!

Andy