Saturday, March 15, 2008 - When EMD was working on their 50-series units in the late 1970's and early 1980's, they had four different models available in the catalog. The GP49, the SD49, the GP50 and the SD50. The primary different between 49's and the 50's being that the 49's were a 12-cylinder unit (instead of a 16-cylinder unit) and were rated at 2,800 HP instead of 3,500 HP.
Not a single SD49 was ever produced. However, nine GP49's were produced: four in September 1983 and another five in May 1985. All nine units went up north to Alaska Railroad. There they remained for the next 20+ years until they were retired in 2006. Two of the units, AAR 2805 and AAR 2808, were sold to Specialized Rail Transports in Houston, TX. BNSF transported the units from the Pacific northwest to Texas, via the Front Range Sub and Colorado. Here are some shots of the units coming down the Front Range Sub, DIC (Dead-In-Consist) on the HPASSAG (Pasco, WA to Saginaw, TX) train. As of 2:00pm on March 15, the train was already south of Denver on the Joint Line.
Oh, also thrown in is a single picture of the Ski Train from Friday morning, for good measure!
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