Death of a locomotive. Ex BNSF, SD-40-2 cut up for scrap.

Helms leasing SD-40-2 #8042 has turned it's last wheel. With a surplus of SD40-2's in North America many of them ended up in the scrap yard where they met their fate. Mr Nick makes quick work out of what would normally take several weeks at your average scrap yard. Many parts of the locomotive such as the engine and generator were removed by the owner to be rebuilt and resold.

Locomotives are typically refused by the majority of scrap yards due to the time and money it takes to scrap them. In most scrap yards it will take one or two people a few weeks to scrap a single locomotive resulting in around 200 tons of scrap. These same people can cut other scrap (such as railroad track) and reach 200 tons in just a few days.

So in many cases railroads have to pay the scrap yard to scrap locomotives simple to get rid of them. Most railroads remove what ever can be re-sold and re-used, and if they are lucky the scrap yard will scrap the locomotive at no fee or even give them a little money.

The cutting torch is run off of propane which burns hotter than acetylene and is also cheaper. Cutting torch pressure is 130 PSI and would empty your average oxygen cylinder in a few hours. Video was shot in Illinois on January 2nd, 2013 in 2 degree weather. Many thanks to Nick the burner and also the scrap yard for allowing me to film this rarely seen process.