Sound Transit (commuter rail in the Pacific Northwest, USA) runs F59PHI locos with 6-8 cars between Seattle to Tacoma, Washington. Starting in Oct of this year they extended the line southward to Lakewood, Washington. The two obstacles to that addition was that it required new track and the route included a 1.4 mile long section at a grade of 2.85 percent. Tuesday evening (Nov 6) a southbound train's loco with 7 cars lost its automatic sanding function and couldn't make it up the hill. Tried it 3 times but no luck. Had to back down to Tacoma and transfer the 100 or passengers to a different train.
Bob Weber
Bob Weber