"Queens of the Stone Age" - UP SD40-2 Rebuilds

UP SD40-2 rebuilds 1633, 1625, and 1632 at Arden, Nevada - December  9, 2012

UP SD40-2 rebuilds 1633, 1625, and 1632 at Arden, Nevada - December  9, 2012

UP SD40-2 rebuild 1633, Arden, Nevada - December 9, 2012

UP SD40-2 rebuild 1633, Arden, Nevada - December 9, 2012

Union Pacific, Arden, Nevada - old Blue Diamond Branch Wye.

UP SD40-2 rebuild 1632, Arden, Nevada

Union Pacific, Arden, Nevada
There's a stiff wind from the north, and planes are approaching McCarran from the south.

The other set of SD40-2 rebuilds based at Arden make a move at the south end of the yard, next to one of the many runoff containment basins in the Las Vegas Valley.

In my lifetime I have seen EMD locomotives built at the time of my birth, like GP9s and SD9s, serve into the present. The Boeing B52 bomber is renowned for its longevity, and could possibly still be flying till 2040. The SD40-2 is one of the most successful designs in American industrial history, and with emission control retrofit kits from EMD, just might have another twenty or thirty years of service life. Running across the pure set of long nose 40s, parked in winter light, was something of a religious experience.