SD-60's to go to the BNSF for 1 year

[Chicagorail1]

All of the SOO Line SD-60's are supposed to be loaned to the BNSF for horsepower hours owed. The BNSF wanted the SD-60's for reasons I have no clue. We switch with them on the afternoon Humbolt switch before they go out on the HAT. There gone as of today.

[uhaul]

Thanks for the heads up. Crews are familiar with the Oakway SD60s and the ex BN SD60Ms so more of them make sense. I bet BNSF would rather use something with more horsepower than a SD40-2 and I doubt Canadian Pacifc would let BNSF use their AC4400CWs and ES44ACs. Could have sent out a SOO Line SD60M or two to spice things up.

[Tadman]

It seems BNSF crews like the Oakways a lot - I was on #3 a few weeks back with 8-10 deadheads going through Galesburg. There was a train with about 5 Oakways on the point and all the deadheads lit up and got passionate about them.

[Engineer Spike]

I really like the SD60. They really have some balls. They are much better than the -8, which takes at least a century to load up.
When I worked the coal trains on BN, out of Creston, IA, I liked getting the Oakways. At that time, there were not enough AC units yet. We still mainly had the C30-7s and Oakways, with some SD40-2s. I remember having one train with 2 Oakways, and a -7. We flew low, relatively speaking.
I liked the SOO 60s too, when I went to the D&H. The cabs are not as good as the rebuilt CP SD40s in the 55, 56, 57, and 5800 classes (some of the 5900 and 6000 classes never had the cabs updated). The 60s just plain pulled so much better.

[mtuandrew]

I noted one of the SOO units northbound on a coal train from Northtown yard yesterday, second in line behind a BNSF GEVO and lumped in with other GEVOs and an SD-40 I believe. Definitely stood out!