UP has the largest locomotive fleet in the world. These units are being stored and slowly sold off, refitted and upgraded, or scrapped. NS bought over 100 SD90”s from UP and has been modifying them in-house to SD70ACe with tier 4 emissions.
Fun idea - Ukraine's rail network is a different gauge, following the Russian gauge. So any rail traffic into the EU has to be taken off one train and put onto another. As part of integration into Europe, donate these engines to Ukraine and assist them in retracking the country to standard gauge.
To every single person claiming these are "Abandoned", you clearly have never worked for the railroad. I worked about a Year with a company that was contracted by Union Pacific, and BNSF. These train engines are being held as "Storage". It's the same in Kansas City, Missouri, home to over 100 Union Pacific Engines, on over 20 lines of tracks
They are NOT abandoned Engine's in the Desert. Reason why they are in the Desert is because they are in Storage until needed back into service. Main reason being in the Desert is because they Air is Dry and doesn't effect the Electrical Wiring inside the Engine's and it helps keep Vandalism away from the Engine's. They are inspected at once a week if not more plus there's Camera's pointed on some of the Engine's for security purposes vandalism and so on....
Very cool. I read Stephens article. U.P. keeps these engines which cost 1 to 3 million each maintained and stored near Benson Az. Because of the perfect climate to prevent rust and rain. With manufacturing at a low time, these 300 or so engine are not used now, but are ready for use as required....about 3 miles of them. Nice view of them Jacob.
A few year ago, when I was in the Fontana, Ca area working, there was a large railyard to the east along the 10 freeway that I passed everyday. There were 3 or 4 lines of engines, about 2 or 3 miles long, being stored there. Many didn't look like they were in very good condition. Figured they were on the way out to be scrapped.
Wow, what a great video. Sad to see many engines being put out or sold. I am an automotive technician for the past 15 years and 38 years old. I have always love trains since childhood. Seeing all these nice videos sure motivate me to be a train conductor for the rest of my remaining years.
That is Interstate 10 about 25 miles east of Tucson AZ. It is not in the middle of nowhere as many folks live out in the area. With all due respect to the “Carpetbagger”, he was grandstanding his audience. You can drive right up to these engines, and it doesn’t take that long from Tucson.
I remember seeing those locomotives from the highway while driving in Arizona on my trip out west, I live in Fort Lauderdale. I assumed they were being stored just like the aircraft that gets stored in the desert . The first comment explains it all. I randomly noticed this video in my feed and always ment to look up the answer about the locomotives and this explains it... Thanks... cool video.
They are a "strategic reserve" of train engines that are kept for upticks in traffic and are rotated into service. That is the official reason. The speculative reason is that they are available for moving military hardware on short notice from one place to another in the event the US was attacked. My guess is that the truth is somewhere in the middle.
>Parked up for years on end in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from any military bases. >"Kept available for short-notice military emergencies" Pick one and only one. If the US military needs locomotives to move stuff around in an emergency, they will simply requisition operating locomotives from company's operating fleets. These locomotives are mothballed, to return to operation, they'd have to be towed to a depot, serviced and repaired first.
Not saying you are wrong... i.imgur.com/YAlwljd.jpg Just saying it is pretty easy to see why people would think they are for military purposes. Union Pacific says these are the routes they use to serve military facilities. Red marker is on Benson, AZ.
SenatorPerry They are stored because they are not needed at this point in time. Even if the official reason is for military use, that's BS. It takes anywhere from 3 to 10 days to put each and every one of these stored locomotives back into service. And then they're not reliable for another 3 weeks or a month. The military would take the locomotives that are up and running at the time.
The reason why there are so many good locos like this disused is because IRS depreciation is too generous. New ones are more efficient, but not that much. And not cheap either. These are 1980s-1990s high horsepower locomotives. They have almost no resale value, smaller railroads don't want them and major railroads buy mostly new. These surpluses are cyclical. There's no strategic reserve of railroad equipment.
@@MilwaukeeF40C They certainly aren't worthless anymore. SD60M's are definitely still good engines that UP still operates and I see plenty of widecab GE's out there. Those are still useful. As for standard cab dash 8's, probably this is the end of the line (plus, they're ugly as hell).
It's not abandoned if its sitting on railroad property , that's the equivalent of a storage yard since they have no reason to be taking up room in a rail yard somewhere since they are retired units
Thank you very much for going out of your way to showing us these trains, good job. Also I like the comment down below how the previous person explain exactly how the trains got there and what will happen to them in the future.
This is an AWESOME discovery! Urban exploration at its as seen form,.., rarely seen, in most urbex, is the first time someone went to a place that fell a bit short. They usually go back and then show an elaborate presentation and never talk about the first few visits. This is upfront and raw,...you made it happen with the drone,...and teched it for us. Thats is astoundingly impressive to me. Never underestimate Mother Nature,... no man nor beast is a worthy adversary for the relentless Mother Earth. You made it happen and came back alive.....so theres that. Great Stuff Jacob!!
UP still checks on the engines and moves them in and out of service as needed. The trains will suddenly be moved, without warning, best to admire from a distance and stay away.
There's the "Official reason" that Union Pacific states. There's plenty of room for alternative speculation though. But the back-story is, when a certain past-president tried to kill coal, Railroads took a huge downturn in business Nationwide! There were literally thousands of railroad crews looking elsewhere for work. (Myself included, even with 15 years seniority at the time.) Along with the crews were the equipment. Your typical coal train has 2-3 engines and about 100 cars. They started making the cars out of cheap aluminum back in the late 90's because of the economic value in the metal and so they would be easier to "recycle" when they were scrapped. But the cars were only good for one thing: Hauling coal. They could be stored or scrapped and not really lose any value. Locomotives on the other hand are the main force of the business. But it costs a lot of money to maintain and operate them. It's also a huge loss when one goes down. And like with any other fleet service, when you have a fleet of unused equipment, it's time to decide what to do with the surplus. Some railroads rotated their fleet roster by scrapping the older engines that are failing mechanically or carry expiring blue cards, and selling off the oldest engines that still have manufacturer's warranties to other (possibly shortline) railroads. Companies like UP have the advantage of parking them out there in the desert where they can be left abandoned and not deteriorate as fast as say, in Georgia or Illinois, where the weather will chew them up. It's neat to see this inventory of equipment. There's literally dozens of boneyards that have a similar subject. I got to see the one in Waycross, Georgia where CSX had been picking the engines of their functional parts to keep the rest of their fleet running. Literally miles of tracks, some 5 or 6 tracks wide and engines end-to-end with something wrong on each one. And once the useful parts were stripped off the engine it was slated for scrap, which usually happened once the whole track was ready to go. At the end of the track, there is a crew with a heavy-duty forklift and a cutting torch, chopping and cutting as it moved practically!
ClawdyaTube, thank you so much for the explanation. I live in Southern West Virginia so I saw first hand how the downturn in coal production hurt our area. The coal trains were few and far between coming through our town. Thankfully the upturn in coal production has brought back the steady stream of coal trains and has helped our economy with the return to jobs in the coal fields.
Nancy Kellum that's good to hear! Hopefully my brothers and sisters in traincrew are back to work, rather than hiring new employees while senior members remain furloughed.
I have actually watched as a hopper car rolled out of the shops with brand new paint and fully serviced only to roll a few hundred yards into a scrapyard. When a railroad has expended the total amount of money that is allocated for M&O costs for an item, it gets scrapped no matter what the condition.
Natural gas is turning out to be more cost effective than coal in a lot of cases. But coal certainly didn't need the extra hassle from Obama's EPA. What a goddamn stunt that was.
Accounting rules are involved in the decisions regarding scrappage. Once a unit is fully written off, it is usually cheaper to replace than to repair. It is discouraging to hear people making up politically motivated stories to explain what is actually an economic success story; to boost economic activity, the Obama administration changed the tax laws by speeding up depreciation rates to give businesses incentives to upgrade their capital equipment, such as locomotives. What you are seeing are the locos retired because they were replaced. Usage of expensive coal power is the first to be cut when there is a decline in electricity usage. When the economy went into the toilet in 2008, energy usage dropped. If the coal mines went back into production, that’s because President Obama was able to revive the economy that his predecessor had trashed. You can thank President Obama for those coal jobs that were restored.
I drove by these on my trip to Tucson in December ‘16. These are mostly just Dash 8’s, Dash 9’s, and SD60M’s. They have all been reactivated and the ex-SP main line that they were stored on now sits dormant once again.
Holy crap dude you bout got lost in the desert. Always make sure and tell someone where you're going just in case. And you need a CamelBak with a GoPro, HeadLamp and auxillary USB battery/cords. I've been stranded more times than I'll admit publicly but im alive to tell about it because I had those things with me at all times. I usually pack a .45 too for bears and highwaymen
Because he didn't want you to realize he was a fat lazy bastard who couldn't walk any longer than 20 feet, couldn't even walk to one of the trains and take a close up video 😂😂 cool video though thanks to the drone. Cool dude too, although still fat and lazy 😂😂
It would be my guess that it has been less expensive to leave those engines in the desert rather than trying to salvage them. Probably lots of environmental costs to dismantle them. That`s my best guess.
Good video,CB!!..Like the drone action and trademark banjo playing.. You are more well rounded and really relaxed with your work... Keep it up,Jake!!🏆🏆🏆
These aren't abandoned, they in long-term storage. This is the siding out of Dragoon Az. UP has the largest number of locomotives and these were parked here for storage units they reconditioned, sold, or scrapped. This a little used siding that with high desert dryness is perfect for storage. Amarc the Air force Bone yard is fifty miles west where aircraft are held in long term storage.
As a railfan, I am good at identifying locomotives. Most of the locomotives stored here seem to be GE C40-8Ws & GE C44-9Ws. Some of them also appear to be EMD SD60Ms. The Union Pacific Railroad (the railroad that owns all of these engines) has retired all of these recently. GE's C40-8W was built from 1989 to 1994, and was a newer version of the older C40-8s, which had a narrow nose/standard cab (I spotted a few of those too) the W version has a wide nose/wide cab. The C44-9W replaced the older C40-8Ws, and were built 1993 to 2004, when they were replaced with the ES44DC. The EMD SD60M was a newer version of the original SD60s, which also had a narrow nose/standard cab design, the SD60M had the wide nose/wide cab design however. Some were fitted with strange 3-window cabs, but were replaced with 2 window designs, seen on some SD60Ms & the SD60I. They are very similar to the newer SD70MAC & SD70M, the main difference being the wheels/trucks, which have an older design.
I find it unfortunate to see that so many People find it necessary to nitpick every little thing that they can. Why do so many People on TH-cam do this? I can only imagine, that it is People with Bad Self Image Issues... who choose to find every little Fault that they possibly can, (so many not worth mentioning, EVER) and then Slamming the Person about those things, probably because it gives them a Short Term Feeling of Superiority. Personally, I appreciate the efforts of People to bring Content for others to View on TH-cam, because it gives me an awareness of Places I didn’t even know existed. Thank you for your Time, Efforts, and Money you Spend to bring interesting Sites for us to see, FOR FREE!
Greebo - I’m sure he did; that’s how he got there. However he got wind of this storage area, he had to locate it on a map and figure out - on a map - what highway would get him there. That whole dirt road thing that is half the video is just filler. After all, he didn’t just have a vision In his sleep that told him to drive for six hours and you will come to a dirt road that will end in the desert.... And he would have had no trouble locating his car if he launched his drone, right? Anyway, my real takeaway, had he really been isolated in an actual remote part of the desert, would be this: when he says, “Wandering around the desert without GPS is stupid...” - the real answer is, “No, wandering around the desert, if the only way you can navigate is with GPS, is stupid”.
Great video! Keep tabs on the sun or moon angle when you go wandering. It'll help you get back. Worst case, build a mound out of debris (minus rattle snakes) to get an elevated view of the area, and find the Carpetmobile. Thanks, commenters, for telling us why they're there
Incredible find my friend, great work!! I need to find some more I'm banding trains from my channel. I have a couple, but nothing like this. Keep up the great content my friend, and as always, be safe out there
Once again proving your the master of drone footage...and misadventures lol. Glad you found your car...and that your key didn't get stuck...and that your tire didnt go flat...and that your clutch didn't go kablewi. ♡
A lot of these locomotives were built between the late 80s and 2000. Many more of these same types of locomotives are stored in Kansas city's Neff yard which was deactivated a few years ago
Yes, a friend from da Alaskan RR stated da same, stored, refitted, sold, & even Alaska looked into buying a few of them! Thanks bud. Always good to see your vids! 👍👍
On a recent adventure I found a massive fleet of abandoned cars. Now to go film myself exploring it, ending with shots of me crawling across the asphalt, dying of thirst... Hopefully the Costco sign doesn't show up in the drone footage.
@Ryon Richardson next time you go out there in hot summer keep an ice box capacity 20 litres . make a drink of apple cider vinegar pure honey and water .and obviously plenty of ice ..you wont become thrusty
Cool vid. As much as a train buff I am I never knew any railroad parked & stored that many locos at one place especially the scorching & unforgiving desert!
It's not what you think. these engines are in storage, and or waiting for decommission or upgrades .these are older models and they are no longer economically viable to run. and or storage for peak freight times
Another utterly brilliant superb video from The Carpetbagger. Beautifully shot amazing drone footage; but why are there hundreds of these Union Pacific trains just lying out in the desert?! Fascinating as ever, thank you so much Jacob! Love from London x
Seems like you found the Union Pacific boneyard. I know there is a few places out in desert where they have rail tracks with Locomotives on from the odd 40+ to 100+ Locomotives just sitting. Couple spots in Arizona and Nevada I have seen in past. Why they are there not sure, but I would assume if its like the Airplane boneyard, Storage, waiting for buyers, or scrapping perhaps.
Awright ya'll,I'll fess up about this. This is MY set of toy trains. I bought a tar load of UP SD-70s,Dash 8s,9s at the local train show right here in York Pennsylvania from a guy. Guess I bought too many UP locos though,didnt have the yards or sidings to store em all. So I drove em here. Wasnt fun either walking around all them thar Black Tailed Rattlesnakes and scoprpions. If you think this is a lot,wait'll you see all the Penn Central engines I bought. Anyone wanna buy any?
Just a hint for future search expeditions, if you are looking for trains, find a railroad track first. Besides, I would think that this string of engines could be seen from that interstate highway in the background.
Kent Bullard yep. Infact others have said they've seen from the highway. And also as others have said, they're not ABANDINED, THEY SRE BEING STORD there until UP decides to , repairs or upgrade then wither to put them service in their own lines, or to sell them to other RRs. These locos, as has been mentioned cost over a million bucks each and they are not so old as to be so obsolitethat the trouble and expense of being them back up to working standards out weigh their value. The UP seems to be doing pretty well in an era when most Rr companies have ling since gone out of buisines. Even if it were to cost half to three quarters of a million to completely rebuild one, it's much better business to do so than is abandoning them and having to spend A full million for a new one. The UP knows what it's doing and can rebuild them so they are better locios than newputting half or three quarters of a mil into bringing a million +$ loci into condition which is as good it better than new is just good business. If they were in such bad shape that rebuild it repair wasn't a cost effectiveoption, they'd have sold them off as scrapa d they'd be in their way back femrin china it wherever as low quality consumer goods.not a bad video tho - I think you just didn't do your research before driving off into the desatr alone in a vehicle not up to te job. . If you had you'd have known what the status of these locos is and would have used a vehicleproperly suited to the conditions, or would have just walked in from the highway. I'm no expert in desarts, but clearly you were unprepared in the event your car totally broke down, or you got so lost you couldn't find your car, or way out. It inly took a few minutes to loose track of where your car was.if you hadn't managed to fund it, you might have got in serious trouble before you found your way to the highway for help. When we're in unfamiliar environments, it's easy to become disoriented quickly.. you seem like a decent guy so next time you decide to venture off into an unknown environment, please put a bit more thought and preparation into your expedition, so you don't end up dead, or worse.
Hey CB I know it has bean a while since this vid has been posted but I know why those engines are out there... My dad works for Union pacific railroad and he told me.. they are there because the company got real busy and they bought many locomotives when the business slowed they couldn't keep all of them running and so they put them out to pasture... they are now in the process of taking them and checking painting and refurbishing the engines because business is getting better
I also heard that there was a change in operating policy so that the railroad is deliberately running shorter trains -- for what reason, I have not heard. With an up turn in business and spreading the business over more trains, of course more locos are needed.
Hi Good thing they are not stored in South Africa as they would have been stripped right down to the tracks Maybe even the tracks would have been stolen Shows what our country is coming to or maybe they see it as job creation
@@ralphieboy4777 The locomotives I saw in 2017 were not these located south of Tucson. I did some investigating and found the tracks were still active. Must have been a group waiting on a sideline, but their location next to I-10 looked like these locomotives.
They are not abandoned, they are being store there. As are the military aircraft at Davis-Monthan, and airlines at Pima airpark. Desert is a great place to store things made of metal.
sploofmonkey checkout the “mothballed” equipment in north carolina sometime. we have remnants from ww2, korea, vietnam, serbia and now the gulf excursions. i’m an old af vet, my dad was af, i have uncles who were af, navy and army. much of it was stored inside fences in full view along roadways in the late 60 and early 70s. some is still there but much has finally been moved; dispersed into south carolina and even alabama. we have former assets from seymour-johnson afb, pope af, ft bragg, camp legeune, cherry point mcas and new river mcas. you can tour the battleship north carolina and more. much of it free to the public. i also grew up climbing on things i would later use in my mil service...
Those were placed there to prevent the tracks from becoming a supply line into America in the event of war, it was part of the JadeHelm maneuvers meant to secure America from a potential land invasion. That's not the only place, look for old tracks not used anymore that travel between Mexico and Americas. It was a backdoor opened that needed to be closed, so they stored those trains on the tracks to delay a land invasion so the tracks could not be used to moved enemy armory and troops in and across America. We have thousands of train tracks left over from years past when trains was used more.
You (and 'Hill Country'} must be joking. What possible reason would there be for so many locomotives to be strung together like that unless they are in storage and / or derelict?
Well... The Kia Soul is an oddball. I call mine a car. The state of Wisconsin calls it a truck so they can charge more for the registration. I opted for the Soul + for the 2.0 L engine instead of the 1.6 L engine. The Kia Soul is basically like a small SUV without the FWD. When I park next to a Jeep Liberty I noticed that they are about the same size. The traction control makes up for the lack of FWD. As for driving it in the desert, we have no desert in Wisconsin so I can't say how it would be. Last time I drove in the desert was with a first generation HUMMER. Today looks like a good day to explore the mountains of Wisconsin...
@@anyhoot47 One should clarify their terminology. FWD is Front Wheel Drive. 4WD is Four Wheel Drive. It's best to differentiate your terms since mixing them will only create confusion.
I'm a truck driver and I run to El Paso maybe once or twice a week from Phoenix so I know where these units are sitting at they're off to the right on the south side of I-10 about 20 miles east of Tucson come on
UP has the largest locomotive fleet in the world. These units are being stored and slowly sold off, refitted and upgraded, or scrapped. NS bought over 100 SD90”s from UP and has been modifying them in-house to SD70ACe with tier 4 emissions.
they are diesel engines. should be that tough
Are they EMD platforms
Fun idea - Ukraine's rail network is a different gauge, following the Russian gauge. So any rail traffic into the EU has to be taken off one train and put onto another. As part of integration into Europe, donate these engines to Ukraine and assist them in retracking the country to standard gauge.
No I'ma block the auctions so U P can restore the sparkling clean locos.
@@GaryBickford we already gave Ukraine enough
"Okay, time to get that loco we want out of storage"
"Which one you want?"
"The one in the middle.."
No ur not taking me never
@@theunstoppable.7774 wait. You are the one that ran away! 😲
@@smipy ye
I've experienced that. Sometimes it was one or a few units never together or course, and, there usually were air brake issues.
Awesome
To every single person claiming these are "Abandoned", you clearly have never worked for the railroad. I worked about a Year with a company that was contracted by Union Pacific, and BNSF. These train engines are being held as "Storage". It's the same in Kansas City, Missouri, home to over 100 Union Pacific Engines, on over 20 lines of tracks
Off Roading in a Kia Soul? Bold choice.
I do it in my 05 scion xb 🤘!
More like a death wish
Our Kia Sould named 'Norman' has been more than offroading! We get many odd looks! LOL
It’s a dirt road???
@@DanTDMJace isn’t that a song?
Thank you very much for posting this awesome video!👍😊
Probably storage location. Low humidity, low moisture so low rust danger. Just like the airplane graveyard.
Only danger is the idiots that have to spray paint their useless garbage on things.
I’m sure they trek far out into the desert to tag trains. Big graffiti problem out in the desert with all them gangs in the middle of nowhere.
@@k.l.8011 highway in sight
How is the graffiti dangerous? No mention of the bullet holes some stupid hick unleashed.
Yes the middle of the desert is a very forgiving place.
Engines are in storage. Tracks not needed for regular train service so it's a great spot to park so many engines.
They are NOT abandoned Engine's in the Desert. Reason why they are in the Desert is because they are in Storage until needed back into service. Main reason being in the Desert is because they Air is Dry and doesn't effect the Electrical Wiring inside the Engine's and it helps keep Vandalism away from the Engine's. They are inspected at once a week if not more plus there's Camera's pointed on some of the Engine's for security purposes vandalism and so on....
Very cool. I read Stephens article. U.P. keeps these engines which cost 1 to 3 million each maintained and stored near Benson Az. Because of the perfect climate to prevent rust and rain. With manufacturing at a low time, these 300 or so engine are not used now, but are ready for use as required....about 3 miles of them. Nice view of them Jacob.
A few year ago, when I was in the Fontana, Ca area working, there was a large railyard to the east along the 10 freeway that I passed everyday. There were 3 or 4 lines of engines, about 2 or 3 miles long, being stored there. Many didn't look like they were in very good condition. Figured they were on the way out to be scrapped.
These locos are waiting for America to be made great again. So, it is only a matter of time now for them to be put back into service.
@@ednorton47
Some of those loco's have been there for years.
The same reason that retired aircraft are stored in the desert.
Wow, what a great video. Sad to see many engines being put out or sold. I am an automotive technician for the past 15 years and 38 years old. I have always love trains since childhood. Seeing all these nice videos sure motivate me to be a train conductor for the rest of my remaining years.
Not exactly out in the middle of no where, when there is a major highway several hundred yards away.
lol..good point
That is Interstate 10 about 25 miles east of Tucson AZ. It is not in the middle of nowhere as many folks live out in the area. With all due respect to the “Carpetbagger”, he was grandstanding his audience. You can drive right up to these engines, and it doesn’t take that long from Tucson.
@@Steve9312028 well he is in a Kia so not a lot of options off the pavement for him
@@Wildwestwrangler I recently drove my Mazda 5 on a road like that and felt like I was going to die. Imagine my shame when I saw he was in a Kia Soul.
For a fat lard with a girl car it’s the middle of nowhere.
Not being afraid to off-road a KIA Soul. Respect. 👍🏻
I remember seeing those locomotives from the highway while driving in Arizona on my trip out west, I live in Fort Lauderdale. I assumed they were being stored just like the aircraft that gets stored in the desert . The first comment explains it all. I randomly noticed this video in my feed and always ment to look up the answer about the locomotives and this explains it... Thanks... cool video.
They are a "strategic reserve" of train engines that are kept for upticks in traffic and are rotated into service. That is the official reason. The speculative reason is that they are available for moving military hardware on short notice from one place to another in the event the US was attacked. My guess is that the truth is somewhere in the middle.
>Parked up for years on end in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from any military bases.
>"Kept available for short-notice military emergencies"
Pick one and only one.
If the US military needs locomotives to move stuff around in an emergency, they will simply requisition operating locomotives from company's operating fleets. These locomotives are mothballed, to return to operation, they'd have to be towed to a depot, serviced and repaired first.
Not saying you are wrong...
i.imgur.com/YAlwljd.jpg
Just saying it is pretty easy to see why people would think they are for military purposes. Union Pacific says these are the routes they use to serve military facilities. Red marker is on Benson, AZ.
SenatorPerry
They are stored because they are not needed at this point in time. Even if the official reason is for military use, that's BS. It takes anywhere from 3 to 10 days to put each and every one of these stored locomotives back into service. And then they're not reliable for another 3 weeks or a month. The military would take the locomotives that are up and running at the time.
The reason why there are so many good locos like this disused is because IRS depreciation is too generous. New ones are more efficient, but not that much. And not cheap either. These are 1980s-1990s high horsepower locomotives. They have almost no resale value, smaller railroads don't want them and major railroads buy mostly new.
These surpluses are cyclical. There's no strategic reserve of railroad equipment.
@@MilwaukeeF40C They certainly aren't worthless anymore. SD60M's are definitely still good engines that UP still operates and I see plenty of widecab GE's out there. Those are still useful. As for standard cab dash 8's, probably this is the end of the line (plus, they're ugly as hell).
It's not abandoned if its sitting on railroad property , that's the equivalent of a storage yard since they have no reason to be taking up room in a rail yard somewhere since they are retired units
Note; now the whole line is filled with empty cargo container cars in storage.
LMFAO, Middile of nowhere busy freeway right next to it. Trying to make it dramatic by driving in the back way! 🤣
Those engines aren't abandoned, they're in dry storage until needed.
Thank you very much for going out of your way to showing us these trains, good job. Also I like the comment down below how the previous person explain exactly how the trains got there and what will happen to them in the future.
Why do people have to be rude to a person just trying to show you something unusual that he did not know about the interstate highway.
Because they are rude in all aspects of life and they get to hide behind a keyboard sniping rather than contributing to life. Nice video BTW
@@kenmtb absolutely right! People in comment sections of any social media are total smart asses and dick heads.
It's called assholes.lol
Hi.yay
The interstate is how he got there
My Late DAD would of loved to see that. He was really into trains. Thanks for showing and keep up the GREAT work that you are doing. :)
Would have* . "Would of" makes no sense .
Hence: "would've" would + have
This is an AWESOME discovery! Urban exploration at its as seen form,.., rarely seen, in most urbex, is the first time someone went to a place that fell a bit short. They usually go back and then show an elaborate presentation and never talk about the first few visits. This is upfront and raw,...you made it happen with the drone,...and teched it for us. Thats is astoundingly impressive to me. Never underestimate Mother Nature,... no man nor beast is a worthy adversary for the relentless Mother Earth. You made it happen and came back alive.....so theres that. Great Stuff Jacob!!
Bro those engines are in storage ready to be demolished
You're like 20 minutes from Tucson. And the interstate is like right there.
There're just storing them there temporarily. The weather is ideal for storage when not in use.
UP still checks on the engines and moves them in and out of service as needed. The trains will suddenly be moved, without warning, best to admire from a distance and stay away.
Thank you for the great video and I am glad you made it back to your car.
There's the "Official reason" that Union Pacific states. There's plenty of room for alternative speculation though. But the back-story is, when a certain past-president tried to kill coal, Railroads took a huge downturn in business Nationwide! There were literally thousands of railroad crews looking elsewhere for work. (Myself included, even with 15 years seniority at the time.) Along with the crews were the equipment. Your typical coal train has 2-3 engines and about 100 cars. They started making the cars out of cheap aluminum back in the late 90's because of the economic value in the metal and so they would be easier to "recycle" when they were scrapped. But the cars were only good for one thing: Hauling coal. They could be stored or scrapped and not really lose any value. Locomotives on the other hand are the main force of the business. But it costs a lot of money to maintain and operate them. It's also a huge loss when one goes down. And like with any other fleet service, when you have a fleet of unused equipment, it's time to decide what to do with the surplus. Some railroads rotated their fleet roster by scrapping the older engines that are failing mechanically or carry expiring blue cards, and selling off the oldest engines that still have manufacturer's warranties to other (possibly shortline) railroads. Companies like UP have the advantage of parking them out there in the desert where they can be left abandoned and not deteriorate as fast as say, in Georgia or Illinois, where the weather will chew them up. It's neat to see this inventory of equipment. There's literally dozens of boneyards that have a similar subject. I got to see the one in Waycross, Georgia where CSX had been picking the engines of their functional parts to keep the rest of their fleet running. Literally miles of tracks, some 5 or 6 tracks wide and engines end-to-end with something wrong on each one. And once the useful parts were stripped off the engine it was slated for scrap, which usually happened once the whole track was ready to go. At the end of the track, there is a crew with a heavy-duty forklift and a cutting torch, chopping and cutting as it moved practically!
ClawdyaTube, thank you so much for the explanation. I live in Southern West Virginia so I saw first hand how the downturn in coal production hurt our area. The coal trains were few and far between coming through our town. Thankfully the upturn in coal production has brought back the steady stream of coal trains and has helped our economy with the return to jobs in the coal fields.
Nancy Kellum that's good to hear! Hopefully my brothers and sisters in traincrew are back to work, rather than hiring new employees while senior members remain furloughed.
I have actually watched as a hopper car rolled out of the shops with brand new paint and fully serviced only to roll a few hundred yards into a scrapyard. When a railroad has expended the total amount of money that is allocated for M&O costs for an item, it gets scrapped no matter what the condition.
Natural gas is turning out to be more cost effective than coal in a lot of cases. But coal certainly didn't need the extra hassle from Obama's EPA. What a goddamn stunt that was.
Accounting rules are involved in the decisions regarding scrappage. Once a unit is fully written off, it is usually cheaper to replace than to repair.
It is discouraging to hear people making up politically motivated stories to explain what is actually an economic success story; to boost economic activity, the Obama administration changed the tax laws by speeding up depreciation rates to give businesses incentives to upgrade their capital equipment, such as locomotives. What you are seeing are the locos retired because they were replaced.
Usage of expensive coal power is the first to be cut when there is a decline in electricity usage. When the economy went into the toilet in 2008, energy usage dropped. If the coal mines went back into production, that’s because President Obama was able to revive the economy that his predecessor had trashed. You can thank President Obama for those coal jobs that were restored.
I drove by these on my trip to Tucson in December ‘16. These are mostly just Dash 8’s, Dash 9’s, and SD60M’s. They have all been reactivated and the ex-SP main line that they were stored on now sits dormant once again.
Holy crap dude you bout got lost in the desert. Always make sure and tell someone where you're going just in case. And you need a CamelBak with a GoPro, HeadLamp and auxillary USB battery/cords. I've been stranded more times than I'll admit publicly but im alive to tell about it because I had those things with me at all times. I usually pack a .45 too for bears and highwaymen
I hear ya on the forty five...I like to have my gat with me too
I-10 is clearly visible and is within ten minutes of hiking.
HIGH WAY MEN? I'll bet Johnny Cash would be able to make a song bout dat ✌️🍾
I'm more on the lookout for Cougars. But ... that's another story;-)
@@villagelightsmith4375 I'm looking for them also as long as they have two legs and are good looking or is that looking good. lol
Congrats on finding them! Awesome soundtrack too. Thanks for sharing!
Why didn't you just pull over to the shoulder of the interstate and take the pictures?
I was gonna say the same thing .
Yep. All that drama about the desert and Nek minit there’s the highway. Great video tho. 👍👍
For the drama
Because he didn't want you to realize he was a fat lazy bastard who couldn't walk any longer than 20 feet, couldn't even walk to one of the trains and take a close up video 😂😂 cool video though thanks to the drone. Cool dude too, although still fat and lazy 😂😂
cyrus S by this comment I can tell you have deep seeded issues. I just wanna let you know I love you brother!
Glad you captured it before the line was moved.
Four wheeling in the desert with Jacob! Have to love it!
One wheeling in that car.
Hell of a good show Carpetbagger complementary thanks.
*Storage* (not abandonment) in an arid desert where it almost never rains is perfect preservation of the equipment.
It would be my guess that it has been less expensive to leave those engines in the desert rather than trying to salvage them. Probably lots of environmental costs to dismantle them. That`s my best guess.
Its a lot of metal & extremely enviromentally unfriendly to knockdown unless you have the inclination to use them all for parts.
🙂👍👌
Good video,CB!!..Like the drone action and trademark banjo playing.. You are more well rounded and really relaxed with your work... Keep it up,Jake!!🏆🏆🏆
These aren't abandoned, they in long-term storage. This is the siding out of Dragoon Az. UP has the largest number of locomotives and these were parked here for storage units they reconditioned, sold, or scrapped. This a little used siding that with high desert dryness is perfect for storage. Amarc the Air force Bone yard is fifty miles west where aircraft are held in long term storage.
As a railfan, I am good at identifying locomotives. Most of the locomotives stored here seem to be GE C40-8Ws & GE C44-9Ws. Some of them also appear to be EMD SD60Ms. The Union Pacific Railroad (the railroad that owns all of these engines) has retired all of these recently. GE's C40-8W was built from 1989 to 1994, and was a newer version of the older C40-8s, which had a narrow nose/standard cab (I spotted a few of those too) the W version has a wide nose/wide cab. The C44-9W replaced the older C40-8Ws, and were built 1993 to 2004, when they were replaced with the ES44DC. The EMD SD60M was a newer version of the original SD60s, which also had a narrow nose/standard cab design, the SD60M had the wide nose/wide cab design however. Some were fitted with strange 3-window cabs, but were replaced with 2 window designs, seen on some SD60Ms & the SD60I. They are very similar to the newer SD70MAC & SD70M, the main difference being the wheels/trucks, which have an older design.
I find it unfortunate to see that so many People find it necessary to nitpick every little thing that they can. Why do so many People on TH-cam do this? I can only imagine, that it is People with Bad Self Image Issues... who choose to find every little Fault that they possibly can, (so many not worth mentioning, EVER) and then Slamming the Person about those things, probably because it gives them a Short Term Feeling of Superiority. Personally, I appreciate the efforts of People to bring Content for others to View on TH-cam, because it gives me an awareness of Places I didn’t even know existed.
Thank you for your Time, Efforts, and Money you Spend to bring interesting Sites for us to see, FOR FREE!
And you didn't notice the highway like 100 yards away?
Greebo - I’m sure he did; that’s how he got there.
However he got wind of this storage area, he had to locate it on a map and figure out - on a map - what highway would get him there. That whole dirt road thing that is half the video is just filler. After all, he didn’t just have a vision In his sleep that told him to drive for six hours and you will come to a dirt road that will end in the desert....
And he would have had no trouble locating his car if he launched his drone, right?
Anyway, my real takeaway, had he really been isolated in an actual remote part of the desert, would be this: when he says, “Wandering around the desert without GPS is stupid...” - the real answer is, “No, wandering around the desert, if the only way you can navigate is with GPS, is stupid”.
That's not even close to 100 yards
Great video! Keep tabs on the sun or moon angle when you go wandering. It'll help you get back. Worst case, build a mound out of debris (minus rattle snakes) to get an elevated view of the area, and find the Carpetmobile. Thanks, commenters, for telling us why they're there
Good thinking
Incredible find my friend, great work!! I need to find some more I'm banding trains from my channel. I have a couple, but nothing like this.
Keep up the great content my friend, and as always, be safe out there
Once again proving your the master of drone footage...and misadventures lol. Glad you found your car...and that your key didn't get stuck...and that your tire didnt go flat...and that your clutch didn't go kablewi. ♡
Man, surprisingly it looks like they were pretty visible from the highway thanks to the drone footage.
A lot of these locomotives were built between the late 80s and 2000. Many more of these same types of locomotives are stored in Kansas city's Neff yard which was deactivated a few years ago
They weren't necessarily "abandoned". They were just being stored on the surge fleet in the event of an engine shortage or high traffic levels.
You looked like the dude from Jurassic park that drove the jeep lmao
Almost got lost too ;)
😂😂ow man
Dotson! We've got Dotson here!!!
...See, nobody cares.
tupz24 LMAO
Dennis
Love trains.
Yes, a friend from da Alaskan RR stated da same, stored, refitted, sold, & even Alaska looked into buying a few of them! Thanks bud. Always good to see your vids! 👍👍
Jacob, love the adventures...always enjoy!
Thank you for making such great content!
That’s wild! Man, bizarre and such cost excess. Good vid my man, and do get your bearings first so you don’t die out there.
Imagine the sound of them all running at once
Imagine the fuel consumption with all of them running at once.
Omg THAT WAS THE BEST INTRO EVEERRRRRRRRRRR
On a recent adventure I found a massive fleet of abandoned cars. Now to go film myself exploring it, ending with shots of me crawling across the asphalt, dying of thirst...
Hopefully the Costco sign doesn't show up in the drone footage.
@Ryon Richardson
next time you go out there in hot summer keep an ice box capacity 20 litres .
make a drink of apple cider vinegar pure honey and water .and obviously plenty of ice ..you wont become thrusty
Ryan the funny guy!!! Too hilarious!!!
Cool vid. As much as a train buff I am I never knew any railroad parked & stored that many locos at one place especially the scorching & unforgiving desert!
Michael Condelli better off in the dessert than somewhere in Cali or organ where they will rust away
It's not what you think. these engines are in storage, and or waiting for decommission or upgrades .these are older models and they are no longer economically viable to run. and or storage for peak freight times
It’s to bad. That these trains could not have been made into little houses for our homeless vets. No vet should be homeless here in America.
Mine as well go grab a couple and make a museum
I’m sure that Jon is drooling over your drone footage!! Ha Ha!! Love Possum One and the Music too!!
Another utterly brilliant superb video from The Carpetbagger. Beautifully shot amazing drone footage; but why are there hundreds of these Union Pacific trains just lying out in the desert?! Fascinating as ever, thank you so much Jacob! Love from London x
Surplus to requirements, stored until further notice.
Damn did it ever make me feel homesick to see all that fabulous desert filmfootage. Thanks for sharing. Sigh...
Love that little banjo ditty in the intro. Cute and catchy
They are not Abandoned
They are in Storage
That's what I was just going to say too. It's just a long term storage line in the desert.
Ahh i see so UP 6706 (EX CNW) is going to be like this?
FYI That is Railroad property, you are trespassing. They are not abandon , that is where the UPRR stores them.
@@rs6383 the railroad only owns the rail and ten feet on each side
I passed this on a Greyhound bus. Thanks for the story.
Seems like you found the Union Pacific boneyard. I know there is a few places out in desert where they have rail tracks with Locomotives on from the odd 40+ to 100+ Locomotives just sitting. Couple spots in Arizona and Nevada I have seen in past. Why they are there not sure, but I would assume if its like the Airplane boneyard, Storage, waiting for buyers, or scrapping perhaps.
They didn't need all the power, and they were getting old. The worst are scrapped and the others get sold off
Needs big business to scrap an engine but the profits from it are small business.
Awright ya'll,I'll fess up about this.
This is MY set of toy trains.
I bought a tar load of UP SD-70s,Dash 8s,9s at the local train show right here in York Pennsylvania from a guy.
Guess I bought too many UP locos though,didnt have the yards or sidings to store em all.
So I drove em here.
Wasnt fun either walking around all them thar Black Tailed Rattlesnakes and scoprpions.
If you think this is a lot,wait'll you see all the Penn Central engines I bought.
Anyone wanna buy any?
I'll buy one if deliveries included!
They are in storage and u.p knows they are there and you are not that far out in the desert when you can see the highway in your drone shot
Yeah was thinking that was pretty silly, especially 'nearly getting lost'... Meanwhile the locos were all sitting next to an interstate...
i just want hay hi many chip out
Good job on the drone footage. That is a lot of tonnage on the the tracks.
Matthew Gates maybe even a ton of tonnage
Just a hint for future search expeditions, if you are looking for trains, find a railroad track first. Besides, I would think that this string of engines could be seen from that interstate highway in the background.
Google maps.
Kent Bullard yep. Infact others have said they've seen from the highway. And also as others have said, they're not ABANDINED, THEY SRE BEING STORD there until UP decides to , repairs or upgrade then wither to put them service in their own lines, or to sell them to other RRs. These locos, as has been mentioned cost over a million bucks each and they are not so old as to be so obsolitethat the trouble and expense of being them back up to working standards out weigh their value. The UP seems to be doing pretty well in an era when most Rr companies have ling since gone out of buisines. Even if it were to cost half to three quarters of a million to completely rebuild one, it's much better business to do so than is abandoning them and having to spend A full million for a new one. The UP knows what it's doing and can rebuild them so they are better locios than newputting half or three quarters of a mil into bringing a million +$ loci into condition which is as good it better than new is just good business. If they were in such bad shape that rebuild it repair wasn't a cost effectiveoption, they'd have sold them off as scrapa d they'd be in their way back femrin china it wherever as low quality consumer goods.not a bad video tho - I think you just didn't do your research before driving off into the desatr alone in a vehicle not up to te job. . If you had you'd have known what the status of these locos is and would have used a vehicleproperly suited to the conditions, or would have just walked in from the highway. I'm no expert in desarts, but clearly you were unprepared in the event your car totally broke down, or you got so lost you couldn't find your car, or way out. It inly took a few minutes to loose track of where your car was.if you hadn't managed to fund it, you might have got in serious trouble before you found your way to the highway for help. When we're in unfamiliar environments, it's easy to become disoriented quickly.. you seem like a decent guy so next time you decide to venture off into an unknown environment, please put a bit more thought and preparation into your expedition, so you don't end up dead, or worse.
"I'm in the middle of the desert looking for train engines" You can see them from the freeway. Entertaining none the less.
Hey CB I know it has bean a while since this vid has been posted but I know why those engines are out there... My dad works for Union pacific railroad and he told me.. they are there because the company got real busy and they bought many locomotives when the business slowed they couldn't keep all of them running and so they put them out to pasture... they are now in the process of taking them and checking painting and refurbishing the engines because business is getting better
I also heard that there was a change in operating policy so that the railroad is deliberately running shorter trains -- for what reason, I have not heard. With an up turn in business and spreading the business over more trains, of course more locos are needed.
i love that music thats played when you launch your drone
I love your drone footage. You are a pro.
That’s pretty cool how they store them. Impressive.
Hi Good thing they are not stored in South Africa as they would have been stripped right down to the tracks Maybe even the tracks would have been stolen Shows what our country is coming to or maybe they see it as job creation
Someone could say the same thing about your car while you were out wondering around...
Does anyone know where this is located at?
They were there in 2017, but they were gone by October 2018.
I saw them just yesterday...still in the same place.
@@RRowleyArizona I sure didn't see them in 2018. I'll be making another trip out there so I'll look for them.
I seen the trains there in September of 2021. Looks like they been there for a spell .
@@ralphieboy4777 The locomotives I saw in 2017 were not these located south of Tucson. I did some investigating and found the tracks were still active. Must have been a group waiting on a sideline, but their location next to I-10 looked like these locomotives.
I was entertained, good to see you out West, maybe we will run into one another one day.
Newman from Seinfeld!
They are not abandoned, they are being store there. As are the military aircraft at Davis-Monthan, and airlines at Pima airpark.
Desert is a great place to store things made of metal.
This is where Possum One really shines. You wouldn't have gotten the big perspective shooting on the ground.
Thank you!
@@TheCarpetbagger ...toot ...toot...
Brings new meaning to the saying about UP , Unlimited Parking
Military does the same with aircraft. Davis Mothan AFB in Tucson has the old aircraft graveyard.
iscubado2 the boneyard...
sploofmonkey checkout the “mothballed” equipment in north carolina sometime. we have remnants from ww2, korea, vietnam, serbia and now the gulf excursions. i’m an old af vet, my dad was af, i have uncles who were af, navy and army. much of it was stored inside fences in full view along roadways in the late 60 and early 70s. some is still there but much has finally been moved; dispersed into south carolina and even alabama. we have former assets from seymour-johnson afb, pope af, ft bragg, camp legeune, cherry point mcas and new river mcas. you can tour the battleship north carolina and more. much of it free to the public. i also grew up climbing on things i would later use in my mil service...
Those were placed there to prevent the tracks from becoming a supply line into America in the event of war, it was part of the JadeHelm maneuvers meant to secure America from a potential land invasion. That's not the only place, look for old tracks not used anymore that travel between Mexico and Americas. It was a backdoor opened that needed to be closed, so they stored those trains on the tracks to delay a land invasion so the tracks could not be used to moved enemy armory and troops in and across America. We have thousands of train tracks left over from years past when trains was used more.
ABANDON: to cease to support or look after (something/one); desert. Stored is the word you need mate.
out in the middle of nowhere---you're 300 yards from I10 and the locomotives are not abandoned, just surplus equipment in storage
I don't believe these are abandoned, this is just a long ass line of trains in waiting
Yes, that is an active main line, probably waiting for clearance from the dispatcher
You (and 'Hill Country'} must be joking.
What possible reason would there be for so many locomotives to be strung together like that unless they are in storage and / or derelict?
you train nerds are awesome
I just left the Tucson area in July 2018, the line was completely gone from there.
As of yesterday the trains and line were still there. Not sure what you're talking about.
This same scenario occured in Wyoming when coal mining took a downturn two years ago. Most went back to work but coal is in trouble again.
That's not a car. It's a box with wheels.. Get a SUV 4x4 for desert runs...
Well... The Kia Soul is an oddball. I call mine a car. The state of Wisconsin calls it a truck so they can charge more for the registration. I opted for the Soul + for the 2.0 L engine instead of the 1.6 L engine. The Kia Soul is basically like a small SUV without the FWD. When I park next to a Jeep Liberty I noticed that they are about the same size. The traction control makes up for the lack of FWD. As for driving it in the desert, we have no desert in Wisconsin so I can't say how it would be. Last time I drove in the desert was with a first generation HUMMER. Today looks like a good day to explore the mountains of Wisconsin...
Wouldn't have needed more than a vespa to visit this location, there's an interstate sitting right next door...
@@anyhoot47
One should clarify their terminology. FWD is Front Wheel Drive. 4WD is Four Wheel Drive. It's best to differentiate your terms since mixing them will only create confusion.
Get a Wrangler
Glad you got un-lost! What a miserable postion to find yourself in. Always good to look back as an adventure instead.
I'm a truck driver and I run to El Paso maybe once or twice a week from Phoenix so I know where these units are sitting at they're off to the right on the south side of I-10 about 20 miles east of Tucson come on
Who do you drive for ?
I wanna keep these
Looks like they're within sight of a highway. Good storage place for big things, the desert.
Interstate 10.
I was legit thinking of the Freak of a Leash video as you said it!
i love trains i used to just watch them run by and start up at a train yard in my small town at they sound amazing turning over (starting up)
Until you live near a rail yard and hear them 'stretching out' at all hours of the night.
Wow, wonder what the story is on all those train engines!!!!
TFS Jacob!!
Could you please deliver these to Australia immediately!
Do you drive on the left side of the tracks in Australia?
Why did he drive around in the middle of the desert when the trains are just 100 yards off a highway?