What a crazy consist to start 2017 with!! The previous night, Amtrak 14 departed Dunsmuir, CA and hit a rock slide just north of town, damaging the lead unit beyond use. Because of the incident, a freight unit was required to help finish the trip north to Portland, OR (where the train terminated for the night). The only available northward facing unit that UP had in Dunsmuir was UP EMD Tier 4 #3012 which had only been in service for a few days. Not only would this be the first UP EMD Tier 4 appearance in Oregon, but it was on an Amtrak train too. Here, UP 3012 leads Amtrak 11 south through the Salem Yard a day after the rock slide incident. Additionally, UP GP60 #1124 (Patched SP) sits in the yard awaiting its next run on the South Salem Local, providing an, "old meets new" encounter.
The EMD SD (special duty) series are a strong and reliable kind of locomotive which still serve America's rails today. They have proved themselves reliable by clocking in several million miles of freight service over several decades.
Tier IV locomotives are the safest, cleanest, and most fuel efficient locomotives on the rails today. Unfortunately, most of them are ugly and are as quiet as an ACS-64.
