BNSF B40-8 588 (originally Santa Fe 7439) heads up local roadfreight L-CHI101 near Williamsfield, Illinois on the Chillicothe Sub, on some dreary-ass cloudy afternoon back in 2015.

ps: Williamsfield, I vote you as the WORST location on the stupid transcon. Now even worse since no Sanner' Fe searchlights.

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A friend an I got word that train no.517 had departed Belleville with a Dash 9 CWL leader and we figured a trip to the dirty 'Shwa was in order. Here, CN 2506 rolls into town, passing Wilson Rd at Oshawa East with three more GE's trailing including another comfort cab, CN 2520, which I imagine came off the previous day's no.516.

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Two locomotives, same builder, same owner, same purpose, sit across from each other outside of the MacMillan Yard LRC shop facility with completely dissimilar fates. CN 2417, a C40-8M built by General Electric in 1990, is in long-term storage at Mac Yard, unlikely to see road service again going into the new year...while CN 3150, a relatively new ET44AC built by Wabtec in Fort Worth, Texas (Mexico???), is waiting its turn to be serviced by shops personnel and returned to the road with many dutiful years ahead of it hauling longer and longer land-barges for its owner.

The endless cycle repeats yet again as newer and more technologically advanced locomotives phase out the brutish work horses of decades past. Railfans all over North America will bemoan the absence of those classic comfort cab draper-taper's.

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What can be said about this locomotive? BCOL Dash 8-40CM 4601 trails second on CN M303 bound for Edmonton, seen here at Snider on the CN York Subdivision.

Delivered in 1990 to the British Columbia Railway, this General Electric C40-8M served its mountain masters out of North Vancouver, BC, hauling lumber, paper, and general merchandise products up and down the west coast between North Vancouver, Prince George, and Fort Nelson, BC. In the divestment of BC Rail by the provincial government in 2003, and the sale of the property and assets to CN in 2004, 4601-4626 moved homes and hauled CN trains for the remainder of the 2000's and 20teens. The dash 8's were spotted in different regions on the system like the prairies, the gulf states, and even out in the maritimes on occasion.

Unfortunately, time catches up to everything eventually. Within the last year, handfuls of BCOL and CN dash 8's of various shapes, sizes, and former owners have turned up in deadlines in Welland, Ontario and Markham, Illinois, pending sale or scrap. As ever-evolving emissions standards prove older power inviable or not worth expenditure for rebuilds, another common pedigree of diesel-electric is here today and gone tomorrow. In early 2021, 4601 and a select few of her sisters still put in their days and nights work plying the miles, sometimes in the lead, but mostly trailing newer power. The future of the CN cowls doesn't look bright either. A handful have been spotted in recent months occasionally leading large trains and living out what is likely their final months in service for the noodle road.

Hopefully I can spot more of these fatso's before the curtain closes on this species forever.

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A faded Warbonnet leads a freight timetable eastbound into Savanna, Illinois, on the BNSF Aurora Sub as the sun begins to set.

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