# Hundreds? of Abandond Locos



## downunda (Jul 23, 2016)

I've been following a couple travelling the USA in their motorhome... they are currently in Arizona near Tombstone and they spotted Stored or abandoned Union Pacific locos out in the desert.

I don't know if this is common knowledge or not but I thought I would post this info for those that haven't heard of it.

If you check the youtube video and forward to about eight minutes five seconds you will see the start of that segment.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Somewhere here there is a Google Earth shot of a similar scene, might be the same one.


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## RonthePirate (Sep 9, 2015)

John, if I remember right, there is also another place between Needles, CA and San Bernadino that has endless numbers of UP engines stored.
That's right off their mainline through the desert.
Kinda like that aircraft junkyard near Phoenix.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I know I saw a Google Earth location and you could scroll along a huge row of them.


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## J.C. (Dec 24, 2016)

grand junction Colorado yard has a slug of locos mostly switchers stored there also.


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## Don F (Dec 5, 2015)

I remember reading about this, I think they are locos that are not needed due to a drop in shipping.
Don


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## 1905dave (Sep 18, 2016)

They aren't abandoned, they are stored. Been a common thing for almost a decade. the railroads keep a couple hundred around major yards as ready storage, that if they needed to, they could crank up within 24 hours. The stuff out in the boonies would take a week or so to get inspected, do minor repairs and get back in service. They cascade the worst performers to the long term storage and then sell off a few as newer engines are received.


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Burlington Northern has a large yard about 8-10 miles east of my town. They have a couple hundred locos stored in there. Some of them look pretty worse for the wear. Maybe some of the railroads ought to start scrapping some of those...they keep getting new ones.


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## Don F (Dec 5, 2015)

I can't even imagine the money tied up in those locos, just sitting.
I don't know what they cost now, but when I worked at a re man facility in Mountain Top Pa, a re-build was $750,000 for an SD 40, and the cost of an comparable new one was $1.5 mil. I'm sure that price has at least doubled since 1990?
Don


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## highvoltage (Apr 6, 2014)

Here's an article that talks about the AZ storage:

http://tucson.com/business/local/id...cle_65a8e4f5-0d99-5c20-a18e-06bf3ad54436.html


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## highvoltage (Apr 6, 2014)

Here's a picture of the line, apparently it's 292 locomotives that stretches over 4 miles:


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

All you need is a good horse and a pup tent to have a blast doing loco graffiti. hwell:
Four miles of targets just sitting there, day after day. :eyes:


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## J.C. (Dec 24, 2016)

an interesting side story on up stored loco's, it seems at one time a few years back when copper scrap was high some on slipped in to Tucson storage yard and removed a large number if jumper off the loco's truck motors. don't know if has happened lately.


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## raleets (Jan 2, 2011)

Certainly makes you wonder if they have any security out there.


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

well at least they didn't just leave them on the mainline.


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## HenryL (Nov 20, 2007)

It seems like an awful waste of equipment to me. If it isn't moving it isn't earning, lease it or sell it.


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## highvoltage (Apr 6, 2014)

HenryL said:


> It seems like an awful waste of equipment to me. If it isn't moving it isn't earning, lease it or sell it.


From the article it sounds like they are hoping the economy will improve and rail traffic will increase. If that happens they are ready to respond.

A more pressing question for me is, what if they need the locomotive in the middle?


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## Shdwdrgn (Dec 23, 2014)

highvoltage said:


> A more pressing question for me is, what if they need the locomotive in the middle?


The great hand in the sky comes down and pulls it out? 
_(Oh, you mean this isn't a model???)_


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## MtRR75 (Nov 27, 2013)

highvoltage said:


> Here's a picture of the line, apparently it's 292 locomotives that stretches over 4 miles:
> 
> View attachment 262353


I sense a modeling opportunity for those who have bought far more locos than they can fit on their layout. A little shelf around the train room with a little backdrop of scenery -- and all those extra locos.


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## 1905dave (Sep 18, 2016)

HenryL said:


> It seems like an awful waste of equipment to me. If it isn't moving it isn't earning, lease it or sell it.


Railroads are subject to the swings in the economy, so they have to protect against things picking up, its not in their best interest to get rid of engines that are surplus now. If they sell them and then the economy picks back up again, it will take $3-4 million a pop to replace them with new engines and they will only be able to get 100 or so a year, just because the manufacturer's capacity is limited too.

Also consider that the economy is down for ALL the railroads, not just the UP and the global economy is also down. So who are you going to lease them to? The market is saturated. They have already sold off a lot of the dogs (pre- dash 2 engines, SD40's, SD50's, narrow cab engines, SD9043's, etc) so what they have left is still salvageable for power.


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## daschnoz (Dec 12, 2016)

Shdwdrgn said:


> The great hand in the sky comes down and pulls it out?
> _(Oh, you mean this isn't a model???)_


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