"It Runs A Little Hot"
Union Pacific GP9 247 was sold to in January, 1985 to Fritz Enterprises in Riverdale, IL for scrap, but the junkyard activated it and decided to use it to switch gondolas around their scrap yard and interchange to the B&OCT Barr Yard, seen to the right.
What apparently no one told Fritz was that the UP frequently stripped the sale units of their still needed components in order to keep sister units running. In the case of the 247, the radiators and fans were removed, making it, in the words of the operator, "run a little hot." Wait until summer!
The 247 merrily switched cars around the yard for a few months, then disappeared presumably scrapped by her less than happy owners. The scrap yard went back to being switched by the B&OCT.
247 was one of 5 units built in June 1954 to dieselize the Camas Prairie Railroad, a joint operation between the UP and Northern Pacific in Idaho.
Riverdale, IL 4/8/1985
Photo by John Eagan
"It Runs A Little Hot"
Union Pacific GP9 247 was sold to in January, 1985 to Fritz Enterprises in Riverdale, IL for scrap, but the junkyard activated it and decided to use it to switch gondolas around their scrap yard and interchange to the B&OCT Barr Yard, seen to the right.
What apparently no one told Fritz was that the UP frequently stripped the sale units of their still needed components in order to keep sister units running. In the case of the 247, the radiators and fans were removed, making it, in the words of the operator, "run a little hot." Wait until summer!
The 247 merrily switched cars around the yard for a few months, then disappeared presumably scrapped by her less than happy owners. The scrap yard went back to being switched by the B&OCT.
247 was one of 5 units built in June 1954 to dieselize the Camas Prairie Railroad, a joint operation between the UP and Northern Pacific in Idaho.
Riverdale, IL 4/8/1985
Photo by John Eagan