12-01-2011, 11:28 AM
I don't know how I missed this discussion. There is a lot of interesting information here.
"The UPY SW1500 did not run alone prior to 2008. It was mostly used as the third engine..."
Reinhard, I retired in 2006. Prior to retirement, I was the primary mechanic doing service of transport refrigeration equipment on the road. I spent a lot of time in Orange County working in the Anaheim, Buena Park, and Fullerton areas. I used to see a most of the U.P. Sw10 (I think that was their designation for the Sw1500's with the Gp9 nose grafted on the end) working singly on the various industrial branches in that area. I seldom saw the Sw's after about 2000. I think they pretty much retired the Sw units as they moved to using remote control for switching. The Santa Fe used two unit sets of Gp's for switching, but I think that may be because the Santa Fe kept their locomotives on the roster and rebuilt them more often whereas the U.P. seems to trade off older units more often instead of rebuilding.
In the city of Industry, where the shop was located, The U.P. would use two and three engines on local switching jobs, and more often than not, two of the three units would be Dash 8-40c's or Sd75's with the third being a Gp40-2. Of course a typically "local" switch job in that area would have 40-50 cars in the train to be switched out. I think the smallest facilities receiving rail service in that area typically would receive cuts of 4-5 cars at a time. There was one warehouse where I went to work on a trailer unit that had 100 loading doors for trucks on one side, and 10 on each end! I think the other side was rail served, and probably had room for a cut of 10 cars! I think that warehouse was close to a mile long!
"The UPY SW1500 did not run alone prior to 2008. It was mostly used as the third engine..."
Reinhard, I retired in 2006. Prior to retirement, I was the primary mechanic doing service of transport refrigeration equipment on the road. I spent a lot of time in Orange County working in the Anaheim, Buena Park, and Fullerton areas. I used to see a most of the U.P. Sw10 (I think that was their designation for the Sw1500's with the Gp9 nose grafted on the end) working singly on the various industrial branches in that area. I seldom saw the Sw's after about 2000. I think they pretty much retired the Sw units as they moved to using remote control for switching. The Santa Fe used two unit sets of Gp's for switching, but I think that may be because the Santa Fe kept their locomotives on the roster and rebuilt them more often whereas the U.P. seems to trade off older units more often instead of rebuilding.
In the city of Industry, where the shop was located, The U.P. would use two and three engines on local switching jobs, and more often than not, two of the three units would be Dash 8-40c's or Sd75's with the third being a Gp40-2. Of course a typically "local" switch job in that area would have 40-50 cars in the train to be switched out. I think the smallest facilities receiving rail service in that area typically would receive cuts of 4-5 cars at a time. There was one warehouse where I went to work on a trailer unit that had 100 loading doors for trucks on one side, and 10 on each end! I think the other side was rail served, and probably had room for a cut of 10 cars! I think that warehouse was close to a mile long!