Tacoma Rail SD70ACE
Author: BN Oly
Date: 09-02-2014 - 18:34
One of the two EMD demo SD70ACE's that has been hanging around CEECo has been repainted into Tacoma Rail and numbered 7001. I assume the other will as well.
This is upsetting for several reasons. One, there is no reason for those big motors. The fuel spent doubling the gulch with a heavy train is no way offset by the price of these monsters. 2, they are 710 powered and will sound boring. 3, either 3000 or 3001 has a glorious sounding 3 chime and I am sure the old 645 powered units will be sold off elsewhere. 4, this is some sort of emissions scam I am sure that somewhere taxpayer money went into some grant to get these underutilized hulks. 5, spend spend spend.
Tacoma rail has way too much power right now. I rarely ever see the Genset at work. The 4 MP15's do the bulk of the work with the GP22 pitching in here and there and the SD's working the hill. The Oly Turn has been using the 2 GP40's (too much power again, they have a wye, one unit can handle the tonnage, they would just have to use more than notch 3) and I have no idea where the GP38's currently are at. Oh and they have one of the old GP7 rebuilds still sitting around that they got $$$ to re-engine even though they never use it.. or the Genset... and rarely the GP22.
Soapbox rant over.