Chicago Trainspotting. SD38-3 (SD38AC) Bessemer Lake Erie 866

Found a real rarity today in the middle of a Chicago snowstorm!  This is BLE 866, an SD38AC (upgraded to SD38-3) spotted at the east end of the CN Hawethorne Yard.

Bessemer Lake Erie Railroad was acquired by Canadian National in 2004 but still functions today.  However, it looks like some of their locomotives have been redistributed around the network as this   one has wandered a fair distance from the BLE lines in Ohio and Pennsylvania.  

It's also getting less and less common to find Bessmer locomotives in the orange and black scheme.        Though still wearing the reporting mark "BLE" and with their numbers unchanged, CN has been repainting BLE locos to the common CN Red/Black/White scheme.  

Further increasing the rarity of this loco is that it was one of only 15 SD38AC's  made, 6 of which were for BLE.  866 bears it's original number and is one only 3 still operating with BLE.

Wikipedia suggest this locomotive may have been upgraded to an SD38-3 in 2004 but I've been unable to verify that or to discover what a the "-3" upgrade entails.

I count myself lucky to have spotted this weathered beauty.

 Happy railfanning and stay warm!

-Karl