I was back out the next day on Friday July 15th, this time closer to home at Iona Siding where a UP maintenance of way train was working at picking up scrap material next to the track after the completion of a recent tie project. They were using a specially built train with a control cab on the east end and a rebuilt SD40-2 on the west end. Here are views of the train as it rolled past me eastbound in the siding in order to meet a westbound “Z” train holding the main.
A few minutes later the westbound “Z” train sped by me on the main track.
The reason the SD40-2 powering the work train was rebuilt into a “maintenance of way powered cab car” is so it is no longer considered to be a locomotive and therefore can be operated directly by M of W personnel without the need for a regular engineer and conductor from train service. You can draw your own conclusions from that observation.
