First taste of MTL SW1500

[John]

There you have it a complete short line facility in about 90 feet. In addition to the Zielgler pix I' ll also include one of the 34 and another unit after re-painting.

Barry

great story ..  how much traffic did you handle on a typical week ..

[Catt]

Quote from: Catt on Today at 04:15:50 AM
Just like the IM SD40-2s I'll wait till I have the loco in hand before I judge it.By the when did Joe say the pictured model was the final version?

Yeah, lets not say anything until it's too late.  Good plan. 

As usual Jason your missing the point,but don't let that stop you.

[Puddington]

Pud,

I can make sure Rapido never has to worry about that again; I'll tell you exactly where the keystone needs to go on all your future releases!   

See, that kind of selfless offer is what makes Dr. Dave a man among men! 

[jpwisc]

great story ..  how much traffic did you handle on a typical week ..

I agree, great info. That line can be quiet at time, but the entire Progressive System handles thousands of cars a year. The Progressive served AirLake Commercial Park by itself can use 3000 cars a year.

The Ziegler facility next to the PROG pen also handles rebuilds and maintenance on the TC&WRs CAT powered fleet, so it was a pretty common site to see their units in the neighborhood.

[BOK]

Hi John:

Thanks, for the comment.
For the first five years I ran the operation we probably averaged 50 cars a week but recently some industries have closed/moved on because they serve an older "maturing" suburban area, where folks want condos and walking parks more than industries and jobs.
PGR did however lease the former John Deere distribution warehouse and they do quite a bit of warehause/trans loading out of it. I would guess that most of the business is made up of boxcars/flats of lumber going to their "freight house" transload, hoppers of plastic pellets, a tank or two for an lube oil distributor, baby hoppers of cement for a batch plant and occasionally gons of steel for a fabricator.
While Jason is correct in that there are three other PGR operations in the Twin Cities area which all contribute to the total cars moved there are pretty much disconnected and separate ones existing on the ebb and flow of local business. The exception is the Lakeville Industrial park where all types of commodities are handled, the connecting line down to Northfield for interchange with CP/UP and the branch up to Randolph and Cannon Falls where they are loading a lot of frac sand. All in all it's an interesting operation.

Barry

[Catt]

Pud,

I can make sure Rapido never has to worry about that again; I'll tell you exactly where the keystone needs to go on all your future releases!   

Under a coating of Conrail blue??

[Puddington]

Under a coating of Conrail blue??

I'm not sure this is getting any better......

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Studying the photo posted, I think we can make a few assumptions:

1. The pilot and steps are BELOW the wheels. This makes perfect sense if this is just a test chassis. The production model would of course have a shell mounted higher which would give the prototypical distance between the walkways and trucks.

2. I can not locate any area that looks out of place as to width. The front screen matches up almost exactly to the Atlas MP15 when viewed from the same angle.

I can't wait to see more Joe!

[tehachapifan]

OK, I believe Spring is officially here. How close are we to seeing these babies? Seriously....this is my most anticipated loco since getting into the hobby (especially SP versions) and I can't stand it!

[Gozer the Gozerian]

[tehachapifan]

Thanks for the clarification on ride height. This looks spot on to me as the prototype has a jacked-up-with-a-lift-kit sort of look as compared to the SW1200.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Needs more Conrail!

Joe this is great! I want one... now.

[u18b]

Hahaha.

Needs flexcoil trucks.


Looks great!

[JoeW]

Joe
Looking good! Keep up the good work!  Looking forward to the SP units. 

[TiVoPrince]

Finger
lickin' good.  How many numbers do you expect in first run of SP?  Bonus points for baked units with red lettering and SPSF paint.

Mr. Wallet needs some quiet time to prepare for battle...