Interesting day at Rockingham Jct. 01-19-2008

today my son and i were trackside cause we noticed that the signal was yellow with the switch lined for the siding. well we waited for about 15 mins and sure enough here come a limping pan am frieght.
The best suprise was that lead unit was the sd-26 #621 with the blue 505 trailing and 2 dead units in the trail consist, well as they were doing that i hear a horn in the opposite direction and here comes amtrak downeaster!!! well it came to a dead stop to wait for pan am to clear the main,and we noticed on the last unit of amtrak it was a gp-38 that looked like it came from njt or mbta it seems that they are phasing out the cabbage cars for these??? anyways it was cool to see the new amtrak unit and the sd-26 and old 505

The unusual Amtrak unit you saw is a GP38H-3. Originally it was a GP40TC of GO-Transit heritage. Amtrak had the units rebuilt and deturboed not long ago. Mostly they work as switchers at various Amtrak yards and service facilities, but occasionally they do road duty when nothing else is available.

The cabbages are not being phased out, but at least one of them is out of service right now (pending repairs), and a replacement cabbage was not available, so this unit is filling in.

Incidentally, this is the second time that a GP38-3H has been used on the Downeaster route. The first time was a somewhat different scenario:

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29074

What interested me was that the DE had to hold at Rockingham for the freight. Couldn't the freight had waited another few minutes at Dover instead? Maybe there was no room at Dover, or the freight had a mechanical problem between Dover and Rockingham and couldn't clear in time.
BTW, I still am in awe that any of those SD 26's are still on the road. Santa Fe thought they were junk when they sold them 20 years ago.

What railroad was this on?

cpf354 wrote: BTW, I still am in awe that any of those SD 26's are still on the road. Santa Fe thought they were junk when they sold them 20 years ago.

Many of the engines that Guilford bought were written off as junk For the SD26s, they bought 35 of them, the remaining 55 ATSF units were traded to EMD on an order about the same time. The GP35s were bought for scrap value and look how well those are running. I would suspect one reason that the ATSF dumped the SD26s was they were oddball units.

cody810 wrote:What railroad was this on?

Rockingham Junction is on the Pan Am mainline.

The GP-38 (numbered 502, by the way) came south through Durham, NH a few minutes ago leading a consist of three coaches and a P42 (or a cabbage...I forget) on the other end. This is an unscheduled run, not a revenue train. Downeaster train 686 passed about 5 minutes earlier.

Finch wrote:The GP-38 (numbered 502, by the way)...

Are you sure it wasn't 520?

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... 284326.jpg

Almost positive it was 502. Also, the unit's paint seemed more chipped/worn than the 520, though it still looked like Phase V colors. This was observed as it passed my window at 50+ mph, so unfortunately I cannot give many details nor guarantee the accuracy of my sighting. I saw 502 and wrote the above post almost immediately...I don't think anything was lost in translation.

Does Amtrak even have a GP-38 numbered 502? All I know is it looked like a Geep, I only assumed it was a -38 because it was mentioned above.

EDIT: The "502" was in large blue lettering on the side of the long hood, similar to the "520" in the picture you linked. I did not see the number plates above the cab.

Finch wrote:Almost positive it was 502. Also, the unit's paint seemed more chipped/worn than the 520, though it still looked like Phase V colors. This was observed as it passed my window at 50+ mph, so unfortunately I cannot give many details nor guarantee the accuracy of my sighting. I saw 502 and wrote the above post almost immediately...I don't think anything was lost in translation.

Does Amtrak even have a GP-38 numbered 502? All I know is it looked like a Geep, I only assumed it was a -38 because it was mentioned above.

EDIT: The "502" was in large blue lettering on the side of the long hood, similar to the "520" in the picture you linked. I did not see the number plates above the cab.

Had to have been the 520, which is a GP38H-3.

The 502 is a P32-8, aka "Pepsi Can"

Yeah, I found pictures of the "Pepsi Can" online.

What I can only assume to be the same Geep was on train 989 northbound late last night. I could not see the number as it was dark outside and I didn't have my glasses on. If this becomes a pattern hopefully I can get another glimpse of it sometime soon.

The B32-8WHs (AKA Pepsi Cans, although the ones that have been repainted in Phase V looking nothing like Pepsi) almost never come to New England. I wish they would, 'cause I think they're cool looking. But yeah, if it was indeed the 502, that would have been extremely unusual. Most likely it was the 520 and your eyes just switched the digits. Happens to me all the time.

Edit: Upon further research, it definitely couldn't have been the 502; that locomotive wears "Amtrak California" paint and stays exclusively in CA.

Yeah, I know it was not one of the Dash 8's. I suppose you are probably right that my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I still hope to see this one again for confirmation. It wasn't on any of the three Downeasters I've seen so far today.