🚀 go-pugleaf

After an extended vacation in Paducah, KY, all three NYS&W SD70M's are
heading for New Jersey.  About 9pm on Wednesday night, the three engines
were shoved off VMV property and were moved to the nearby Paducah &
Louisville Railway diesel facility.  On Thursday, the three engines were
fueled and sanded and were thoroughly inspected.  They were fired up and
by 8pm last night were cleared for departure.

To get to New Jersey, these engines are taking an interesting route. 
The engines will _NOT_ be going up the IC to Chicago, and then east on NS
as previously believed.  Instead, the units left Paducah last night on
PL-4, which is the P&L Railway's overnight train from Paducah to
Louisville.  At Madisonville, the units were to be set out at West Yard.
Sometime today, they will pick up a coal train and then continue east to
Louisville.  Once at Louisville, they will be interchanged to NS and will
then head north (I don't know the route that the engines will take from
Louisville, but if I did, I'd certainly post it).

It was quite a sight seeing the three engines at P&L's diesel facility
last night (however, I'd already seen, and photographed them, on at least
a dozen occasions).  The smooth idle of the turbocharged 16 cylinder,
710-series engines provided a nice contrast to the classic sounds of the
GP10's kicking cars in the nearby P&L yard.  Although it was somewhat
hazy, the yellow-and-black carbodies glistened in the evening light. 
Just a small bit of sand had been spilled on the radial trucks, making the
details stand out.  As one locomotive was fueled and sanded, a worker
would hop in the cab of 4050, open the throttle a notch or two and filling
the air with that wonderful sound that only a turbocharged EMD locomotive
can produce (to me, when a GE starts moving, it sounds like a slob who
burps after consuming a Big Mac and Coke).  Once the hostler was finished
with his move, it provided me with yet another vantage point to view these
engines.  It was beautiful, these SD70M's in the mist.

______________________
Ok, OK.  So much for the romance novel style writing (trust me, I normally
don't write very sappy letters).  For those who have read my previous
"articles" about the SD70M's seeking asylum and/or busting out of VMV and
might be wondering "Is this guy serious?", let me just say that yes, the
engines did VMV and have left Paducah on the P&L.  

Incidentally, the locomotives were in numerical order when they left
Paducah.  This inagural run just might be the only time this will happen,
since Susquehanna will undoubtedly split up the engines.  

Cliff Downey    (Murray, KY)
cdowney@racer1.mursuky.edu
bj359@freenet.carleton.ca