--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Mickey" <mickeycrimm@...> wrote:
>
> ?Good Ole' Backpack Phil and me had jumped one of those hots shots north out of Las Vegas, We're were looking to make it to SLC to work day labor and use the soup lines to keep us out of spending our money. That is....if we could stay sober....but you know Backpack Phil and me....no chance in hell.....right?
>
It looks like you broke off in the middle of a story, Mickey.
Hey, to change the subject slightly, I was just coming home from the casino at 2:00 a.m. and was thinking about your posts as I sat waiting for a train to go by. I live not far from a main artery of BNSF. I was watching this thing and thinking back to when I was a kid, back then they had the SD-9 six-axle locomotives that were about 1600 hp. Where I am at, it seems like the locomotive of choice nowadays is the "Dash 9s" put out by GE. These things are huge. I'm sitting there watching it, and there is easily 100 cars and I can tell they're loaded. It sounds different when they're loaded and when it's empties, I know you know the sound I'm talking about. So there's like four or five Dash-9s on the front, and two in the back, and that seems typical. I just googled CW44-9w, and these things are 4400 hp, holy crap! The shear tonnage, the power, it leaves me breathless as it goes by. Every loco was growling too, they were working overtime, man. Can you imagine how many tons of steel and cargo that is? It was easily going 60 mph too. Wouldn't want to get in its way. lol I love watching them. It is amazing to me what mankind has made, these huge machines are a picture of beauty in my opinion.
