October has been a slow month tracking them MRL 70aces. I have found a few pictures of them in service.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=122481
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=121858
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=121860

I will start a post over at Trainorders and Railroadforums to find some information out about how these guys are holding up.

Well, this post is not about MRL new EMD units, but of NS new units. I will have a better chance of getting photos of these guys since there are two NS mainlines that run through Cleveland.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=121329

I am still searching for photos of the new MRL units in server. Rumor has it that some are in main line service. Not sure if they are being uses as helpers or lead engines. I will keep this updated as soon as I find information.

Recently here in Cleveland, Ohio, I have noticed a few new things on the Cleveland Norfolk Southern line. Somewhere there is a power plant that burns coal from the Powder River Basin region and it recieves coal from BNSF. These trains usually just run with 2 big units from BNSF and one from NS. The one from NS is required due to the cab signals on the line. This is great, I finally get to see some color in the sea of black locomotives. Well there is only one problem, the grades. From the Cuyhoga river to about Bedford ohio, the Cleveland line climbs up hill. There are twisty curves and a few of S-curves on this line that will bring any train to a grinding halt. Well, that is happened on one of these coal trains from BNSF. The charge was lead by a SD40 in CR blue and two BNSF C44-9W's locomotives. This was not enough power to keep things moving at the posted 25 mph nor 3 mph. After dropping from about 9 mph to a slow walking pace to a full stop, the heavy coal cars just sat there. I am not sure how they got this train moving at speed again.

NS runs other coals trains to points east on the same line. They usually put 3 big units on the head end and 2 units on the rear. Those helpers on the rear vary from gp38's to SD70's. Maybe NS should places those helps on the rear of these BNSF coal trains to help them make up from the grades.

Here is a link of the train mentioned aboved. http://clevelandtrains.net/emd710/temp/ns3.jpg

NateF40Amtrak Out.

There is no new news really to report on the MRL Sd70's. There is a rumor out there that four of them are together working as a helper set. As soon as I find photos of them, I will post a link up here.

I am very much interested in the whole opereations of railroading, not just goes on at track side or in the yard. By trade, I am a network administrator. Weekly, I recieve a ton of magizines that pretain to the IT world. Here is a link to a article that talks about KCS computer problems and how they wasted alot of money. IT guys will like this one.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/09/14/38OPrecord_1.html

Over at Railroadforums.com, there is a photo contest that takes place every month. The photo topics very every month. Sometimes they deal with people, rail cars, logos, locomotives, whatever you think of.

For the month of August, the topic was your personal best. It could be a picture that is related to railroading in some way, shape or form. I usually dont enter these contest, but for some reason I put some of my best work foward. I posted NS5814 at http://www.railroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8862

Please vote for me!

Thanks

NateF40Amtrak