Videos from 1989 to 1997 when GE U30C's powered ore trains on the Lake Superior & Ishpeming RR. Also seen are the lake boats Charles M. Beeghly, Lee A. Tregurtha and Edward L. Ryerson.
kind of a bummer, these units are all but gone even the c-30-7s. replaced by -8s, -9s, and 70 macs. Back in '88, used to go "eehhh, its jus the same lash up, KCS sd40 and 40-2s, and on coal trains, KCS 40s and BN -7s."... now I miss them. I lived on a dead end street that had the KCS mainline at the end of the street. and life couldnt have been better! even got to ride in the cab of either a pair of KCS gp 30s, mp 15s or gp 40s (depending on what they used that day) back when they just needed permission from my dad. they would pull up and tell me "hop on" and I climbed up into the cab, and there was no evil in the world! lol , while they changed out cars at the feed mill, I was havin the time of my life. the 80s. good times.
These U30C's remind me of my childhood. I had an HO scale athearn model of one of these. It was Burlington Northern instead of Lake Superior and Ishpeming but I look at these and still see Burlington Northern. The color scheme hasn't changed, just some different lettering on the side. They had quite a unique sound as well.
The operations are in trouble as the price of ore continues to drop and the amount of imported steel stays high. The LS&I is a shell of what it once was. let's hope they can hold on
Awesome, good looking and good running engines. They had good horns on them, too. Don't know what type, though? Seems like Burlington Northern used a lot of them on coal trains out of Wyoming, then got C30-7s from GE to supplant them.
Soo-Line had 10 U-30-C's 800-809. They didn't like them and loco electricians didn't know how to fix them. So they were sold them to other railroads. Sad.
oh ok thanx! I been searchin like a mad man trying to find out what that thing was!! lolI even before Id go to sleep I would be wondering what in the world is that infernal box for? and nothing about it on the net? I have seen alot of pics of older u30s, but they didnt have the box, and their seemed to be no info on what it was. I knew about to the remote dpu system, but I didnt know these had them. I thought maybe it had somthing to do with the dynamic braking...maybe? lol thanx again!
