So what happened to the GP38-2s? Patched or retired? And where do they stay/ And do those C44AC's have Nathan P3R1 Horns or something different?
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So what happened to the GP38-2s? Patched or retired? And where do they stay/ And do those C44AC's have Nathan P3R1 Horns or something different?
Eaglefan9727
Member
No idea.....
simulatortrain
jointed freaking rails
Usually not with a kind connotation. It originated when train crews suggested railfans foam at the mouth upon seeing a train.
PereMarquette1225fan
Active member
To the best of my knowledge and from my friends who work on the Union Pacific Railroad, the company has been retiring the GP38-2s in favor of GP40-2s. Exactly where they may be is unknown to me. I've asked them about where they might potentially be, but they haven't told me.
Eaglefan9727
Member
Southern Pacific was known as one of the best railroads when it was around. They were the most railfan friendly railroad I have ever dealt with. Their railroad police were always good with railfans and treated them fairly, But dont let them catch you riding one of their trains. It was not a pretty sight as I have seen that happen a number of times when the SP police would come to Glendale, California station 3 or 4 times a week around 9:00 at night to check one of their hot shots (PCX or CIBAT) going up north.
For those who are interested in knowing what the call letters are for those two trains. I have posted that info below:
PCX - Pacific Coast Express
CIBAT - City Of Industry Bay Area Trailers
For those who are interested in knowing what the call letters are for those two trains. I have posted that info below:
PCX - Pacific Coast Express
CIBAT - City Of Industry Bay Area Trailers
How times have changed. If the SP had survived without this merger, things would be different particularly with the big push for freight on the rails again. During the decades before, the government had turned from pro-rail to everything on the interstate. This caused a lot of revenue to move away from the railroads to the highways. Now that the highways are falling apart, and too clogged with cars, things are going full circle so the railroads are getting the funding to rebuild their infrastructure again.
An electric railroad across the country would have been amazing. It's too bad it didn't happen, yet we have to remember what happened to the old MILW. They had their big electric line across to Washington State, and that cost them a lot of money to keep it operating. The extra infratstructure costs with the power plants, wires, and extra repair facilities really hurt them along with their other problems at the same time.
Again too perhaps if the times were different, this might not of happened. Perhaps too this would have set up the precedent for high speed rail because the electric lines would already be in place like they are in Europe.
John
simulatortrain
jointed freaking rails
What, business vs. foam?
SP & UP
Think I'll yank a few chains! When I wrote my comment what I was trying to say is that UP runs a tight ship business wise, and I'm glade they have their history program. On a personal note I've had to deal with both the SP and The UP. Before the take over I much preferred dealing with the SP, if you had problems they would go out of their way to help, can't say that about UP, it's all about $$$. My brother in law and a number of my friends worked, and work, for both roads. Their feelings seem to be that the SP was a much nicer place to work. It used to be with the SP you had to blast people into retirment, now it seems they can't wait to get out. There doesn't seem to be the loyality there used to be. You do have to give the UP credit where credit is due, it only took them 100 years, and the lord knows what other type of scheming to pull it off. It broke my heart when the SP ATSF merger fell through because of the govt, but Im sure there was no conniving on any bodys part!
Think I'll yank a few chains! When I wrote my comment what I was trying to say is that UP runs a tight ship business wise, and I'm glade they have their history program. On a personal note I've had to deal with both the SP and The UP. Before the take over I much preferred dealing with the SP, if you had problems they would go out of their way to help, can't say that about UP, it's all about $$$. My brother in law and a number of my friends worked, and work, for both roads. Their feelings seem to be that the SP was a much nicer place to work. It used to be with the SP you had to blast people into retirment, now it seems they can't wait to get out. There doesn't seem to be the loyality there used to be. You do have to give the UP credit where credit is due, it only took them 100 years, and the lord knows what other type of scheming to pull it off. It broke my heart when the SP ATSF merger fell through because of the govt, but Im sure there was no conniving on any bodys part!
George,
I understand exactly what you're talking about here. I dealt with Watkins Motor Lines for quite a number of years. They were a great family-owned trucking company that would work with customers with problems, and really accomodate shipping schedules. Then the inevitable happened. They sold out to FedEX. This caused us quite a bit of heartache because the customer service was no longer there. The small team atmosphere was no longer there, and everything became dry and corporate.
I've also seen the same issue you've seen with the employees. So many good people left because the work environment was not the same. FedEX made a lot of corporate changes that resulted in many unhappy employees, and the loyalty is no longer there.
At the moment, I am no longer involved in this aspect of business, but it goes to show the differences between how a small company operates and a large mult-national corporation. In the big companies, people can hide in back of others, so there are many bad people and only a few.
John
I understand exactly what you're talking about here. I dealt with Watkins Motor Lines for quite a number of years. They were a great family-owned trucking company that would work with customers with problems, and really accomodate shipping schedules. Then the inevitable happened. They sold out to FedEX. This caused us quite a bit of heartache because the customer service was no longer there. The small team atmosphere was no longer there, and everything became dry and corporate.
I've also seen the same issue you've seen with the employees. So many good people left because the work environment was not the same. FedEX made a lot of corporate changes that resulted in many unhappy employees, and the loyalty is no longer there.
At the moment, I am no longer involved in this aspect of business, but it goes to show the differences between how a small company operates and a large mult-national corporation. In the big companies, people can hide in back of others, so there are many bad people and only a few.
John
Just remember while your bad mouthing UP that they are the only Class one US railroad that not only has a steam program but, runs two engines from it and one of which has never been taken off the active roster since it's building. For being such a horrible company they have my vote for doing well by the railfan.
Patched SP units arent that rare. There are a good amount of them still around these days. I saw a patched SP unit up here in MA last year. In April of this year when I was on my yearly vacation to Los Angeles. I saw a unpatched SP unit not once, But twice. I saw it the first time at Cajon Pass and I caught it again a couple days later in downtown Los Angeles. Here are the 4 shots that I took of it from both locations.
Cajon Pass - March 31st, 2011
Downtown Los Angeles - April 2nd, 2011
Hey, that gives a reason for model train mfr's
(Kato http://www.katousa.com/ Etc)
to make up to date (prototypical) models of UP's engines showing SP and/or C&NW schemes with UP numbers
And UP gets payed royalties when mfr's use their trademarks
I do too, unfortunately though these are the railfans that give the rest of us a bad name!
John
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