Well, then again they do ALSO own 1,773 C44-9W diesels, so it would stand to reason that they too, are likely to lead most trains! Not to mention an additional 20 AC44C4M rebuilds (from C44-9Ws). Of course there's the "honorable mention" ES44DC - 720 units, and ES44AC - 683 units, not to mention 119 AC4400CW (C44-9W AC counterpart). And the next generation has begun - 274 ET44C4s thus far. It's mind boggling, isn't it? I remember Santa Fe rosters from back in the 1980s - They had I think about 125 SD45s, 100 U36-Cs, and maybe 85 SD45-2s, they started adding SD40-2s maybe a bit over 100 units - that was the backbone of the Santa Fe roster until the '90s, and put together it's 1/12th the number of GEs ALONE for BNSF today. Yes I know BN had a lot of power, but still nothing like today's BNSF.
|
You're right, of course. It seems, though, as if the vast majority of what I see here in California are ES44C4s leading, with the Dash 9-44CWs buried in the consists. The ES44ACs used to be kind of rare in southern California, but they are much more common now. And we've got a large number of ES44DCs, the 7700s, that are apparently assigned to Barstow - they make up the usual power on BARWAT, BARSDG, BARKAI and other manifests - and are usually covered in graffiti. In the midwest, these trains are often handled by GPs.
Sadly, I've yet to see any of the AC44C4Ms.
|
I wonder if the C44-9Ws are being "buried," as you put it, when they can due to how quickly the "desktop" control stands fell out of favor and BNSF returned (I believe in 2005, right when GEVO production units started being produced) to the "AAR" type control stands.
|
|