If I recall, the leasing company that supplied those SD9s never did get them in good running condition and they were rarely if at all used by Modoc Northern. MN was hard on engines. They tried running an SW1000 on the Lakeview branch and burned the place down (too small of an engine without the right exhaust manifold), fried a traction motor on the B23-7 and abandoned it at Canby (now switching in Portland), destroyed Lake County's GP7 after repainting it in their colors (now repaired and working for Lake Railway).

GP39-2's are fairly rare and hard to find. A GP40(-2) derates to 2000 hp at 10 mph, so unless you put it with a slug or run it at 15+ it isn't happy. GP38(-2) is a better choice but they are now hard to find and expensive.

Lake Railway is using two GP49s and the 700 and even they are struggling to keep up with current traffic interchanged at Perez.