UP & BN yard switchers


tlark

Member
Off the top of your head any of you experts, what type of yard switchers were/are currently being used from 1990's tp present. I have a SW1500 and thats it. I would like to add a 2-3 more with a MP15ac that coming out from Athearn....is the 1500 still being used and another number I am perhaps missing.
 
There's SW1000's too, some are marked SW10 on the frame, but its the same general unit. MP15AC/DC.

If you want REAL modern switchers, buy an SD40-2.
 
I did some looking around on the net and did see some GP30, GP35 & 38 used as road switchers. I guess its not a big deal if they are used in the yard too. Not anal about having the exact prototypical units just want to be more correct of the time period.

Found this over on Wiklapedia:

http://www.emdiesels.com/en/locomotive/switcher/gp20d/
 
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There are end cab switchers still being used in yards, but you're starting to see more GP38-2s/3s out there now. Conrail's Sterling Yard now has a NS GP38-3 (converted GP40-2) working as the yard switcher.

Some big yards have the odd SD-38s (could also be a de-turbo'd SD-40), or regular SD-40s even. If you're talking a small yard, could be a chop-nosed GP7/8/9/10. EJ&E's Lang Yard has a couple of ex-DMIR SD-9s.

CSX's Willard Yard uses a GP38-2/slug set for the hump as well as flat switching. They also use road power to build a train; have had many of those block the view of the diesel house and the rest of the yard as the crew works to build their train.

NS's Bellevue Yard uses a high-nosed SD40-2 mated to a Baldwin slug as the hump power. I don't recall seeing what they use to flat switch....

I should also note that while looking into UP's Global III intermodal yard, there was a SD40-2 doing the switching.

Kennedy
 
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The BNSF interchange yard in Laurel MT. is switched by MRL engines. I was there a couple of weeks ago and saw an SW1200, a couple of Chop-nose GP9's (set up for remote control via special cabooses) and an SD35. I know MRL had a couple of SW1500's also and they use an SD9 in the yard in Missoula.
 
Alas, the end cab switcher is fast disappearing from the UP. There are about 20 SW1500's and 10 various types of MP15's left. There were a few SW1500's working North Platte two yars ago when I was there and the rest seem to scattered around the system in smaller yards. The GP38-2 is fast becoming the standard UP switcher.
 
There's also the option for 3GS21B's & 2GS14B's from NRE. Or the MP20GP that UP had a few of. GG20's... Those all will require buying brass, or building it yourself, or lastly, having someone build one...
 
don't forget the newer units: Gensets and GP20D. Plenty of these. There's still a few MP15 in Houston. The GP15-1 are often seen as well in flat switching.

Hump power in Houston is normally a pair of SD40-2 (deturbo'd?) sandwiching a gutted B23-7 Remote Control Master.
 
Alas, the end cab switcher is fast disappearing from the UP. There are about 20 SW1500's and 10 various types of MP15's left. There were a few SW1500's working North Platte two yars ago when I was there and the rest seem to scattered around the system in smaller yards. The GP38-2 is fast becoming the standard UP switcher.

Neff Yard in KCMO runs 1500's amd the MP15's, there are several running around...
 
UP has some "detuned" GP40s running around as GP38-2L's, as well as the occasional GP15 of some sort.
 
Depends on where you are modeling almost anything made more then 15-20 years ago can or is being used in a yard somewhere. Last I knew they had a SD9 at the BNSF yard in Spokane, WA.
 



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