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Well, this is a pretty rare sight. CSX #7265 at the end of the line in St. Petersburg, FL!

We were headed to the park for a foggy morning walk, and when we crossed the railroad tracks down the street from our house, there were bright headlights down the tracks so we pulled into a parking lot right alongside the railroad to wait. And surprisingly, this was the engine that was rolling down to switch the building supply company at the end of the old Atlantic Coast Line branch. Six-axle locomotives never run the old branch line because the tracks and trestles aren't main-line spec, so they don't like rolling these heavy engines over them, but I asked the conductor and he said they didn't have any four-axle engines available in Tampa that morning and they had two very long cuts of cars to switch at the building supplier and then a long one to bring back, so they needed this larger engine anyway.

#7265 is a GE AC44C6M unit. All of these engines were rebuilt from GE Dash-9 series locomotives to increase fuel efficiency and hauling power. These are normally mainline engines for CSX, as they have 4,400 horsepower. As I said, seeing one of these on the small line near my house is exceptionally rare!

#train #railroad

Description

Well, this is a pretty rare sight. CSX #7265 at the end of the line in St. Petersburg, FL!

We were headed to the park for a foggy morning walk, and when we crossed the railroad tracks down the street from our house, there were bright headlights down the tracks so we pulled into a parking lot right alongside the railroad to wait. And surprisingly, this was the engine that was rolling down to switch the building supply company at the end of the old Atlantic Coast Line branch. Six-axle locomotives never run the old branch line because the tracks and trestles aren't main-line spec, so they don't like rolling these heavy engines over them, but I asked the conductor and he said they didn't have any four-axle engines available in Tampa that morning and they had two very long cuts of cars to switch at the building supplier and then a long one to bring back, so they needed this larger engine anyway.

#7265 is a GE AC44C6M unit. All of these engines were rebuilt from GE Dash-9 series locomotives to increase fuel efficiency and hauling power. These are normally mainline engines for CSX, as they have 4,400 horsepower. As I said, seeing one of these on the small line near my house is exceptionally rare!

#train #railroad