Ending over a decade of relying exclusively on EMD products for power, the Rapid City, Pierre & Eastern has recently received several hand me down Dash 9's. While the BNSF heritage of these locomotives is obvious, they've also made the rounds through KCS, CPKC, and NS as part of GE's lease fleet. They've been in service east of Huron since early September, and this was my first chance to see some of them for myself as they worked uphill on CPKC trackage rights out of New Ulm with the tri-weekly Mankato to Aurora train. They're certainly not as appealing to me as the SD40-2s that ruled the RCPE for so long, especially in their current patched and faded state, but it's history that I might look back on differently someday.
