A year ago, Union Pacific had reactivated a ton of its older engine models and they were running wild across the system. The reason then was a boost in traffic and paying back horsepower time. I’m talking about Dash 9s, SD9043MACS, SD60Ms and so on.

Now they’re all sidelined again, especially a huge chunk of the SD70M roster. It all points to PSR and the plan of purposely “yarding” older engines. PSR isn’t something you’d quit once it’s started so is it fair to say all of the engines in current deadlines have run their last miles on Union Pacific? The units I mentioned earlier will be first to go but the SD70’s? Hard to imagine the SD70’s would be toast, they’re wonderful looking locomotives. I wonder if they’d be back on the tracks again soon?