Eastern Washington Gateway RR Engineer Gregg Laughbom looks on as four ex UP locomotives prepare to move an empty grain train west out of Cheney WA late on the afternoon of Thursday 12/13/2012. GP7 1617 looks on from the Cheney house track in the distance.

Locomotive lineage is as follows:

WRIX 8702 - SD40T-2 ex UP 8702, exx UP 4432, exxx SSW 8375. Built Feb, 1978
NIWX 2891 - SD40T-2R ex UP 2891, exx UP 8619, exxx UP 4049, exxxx D&RGW 5362. Built July 1975
WRIX 3001 - SD40-2 ex USRC 3001, exx UP 3188. Built July 1972
WRIX 3000 - SD40-2 ex USRC 3000 exx UP 3164. Built Feb, 1972

And the GP7: 1617 built 12/1953 as CB&Q 261, EMD b/n 18977, a steam generator equipped passenger unit initially assigned to Chicago IL commuter service where it would have replaced steam power. Became BN 1617 after the 3/2/1970 BN merger. Rebuilt by BN in the 1970s. Reconfigured for short hood forward operation and short hood chopped Sold about 1982 to dealer Great Western in Colorado, Transferred to N-C-O Division (Lakeview, OR) in 1986 and then sold to the Lake County Railroad in 1996. Traded to dealer Western Rail Inc in Airway Heights WA. Leased for several months to St. Maries River Railroad, Plummer, ID, in late 2006. Returned to Western Rail and assigned as power for the Geiger Spur on 11/8/2007. Sold to NIWX 01/2009 when Geiger spur operation changed to EWG. In active service with EWG where it is the primary power for the Geiger Spur and sometimes helps with grain trains on the EWG mainline.

59 years old and still running strong!