Standing Still Sunday with the SP
Here's the Southern Pacific 7231, a survivor by any measurement. We found her and the 7200, a pair of GP40X's fresh out of EMD and dressed up in the way that only the SP could dress them. They were sitting in bright February sun back in 1978 at the Rock Island yard in Blue Island. The two were part of a four unit order, and the 7231 is the only one to still be working today, though she doesn't look like this. The SP GP40X's were delivered with the usual SP light package. They also got the new HTB trucks and the elephant ears back by the flared radiators, which were supposed to draw more air up into the vents. The SP retired all four, but then the Union Pacific brought the 7231 out of retirement. They renumbered her a couple of times, even giving her the number 9999. She was an experimental test bed, but only for a short while. The UP sold her and she got rebuilt to a GP38-2. The fancy shoes, the HTB trucks were discarded for conventional Blombergs (the ears had been long gone by then). The old girl was reborn and sold to the Canadian Pacific, becoming the 4521. Yep, she still has her flares, so she must be kind of neat to see. Kind of funny that every railroad she worked for was a Pacific of some kind or other. Too bad, the Western Pacific wasn't still around.
Standing Still Sunday with the SP
Here's the Southern Pacific 7231, a survivor by any measurement. We found her and the 7200, a pair of GP40X's fresh out of EMD and dressed up in the way that only the SP could dress them. They were sitting in bright February sun back in 1978 at the Rock Island yard in Blue Island. The two were part of a four unit order, and the 7231 is the only one to still be working today, though she doesn't look like this. The SP GP40X's were delivered with the usual SP light package. They also got the new HTB trucks and the elephant ears back by the flared radiators, which were supposed to draw more air up into the vents. The SP retired all four, but then the Union Pacific brought the 7231 out of retirement. They renumbered her a couple of times, even giving her the number 9999. She was an experimental test bed, but only for a short while. The UP sold her and she got rebuilt to a GP38-2. The fancy shoes, the HTB trucks were discarded for conventional Blombergs (the ears had been long gone by then). The old girl was reborn and sold to the Canadian Pacific, becoming the 4521. Yep, she still has her flares, so she must be kind of neat to see. Kind of funny that every railroad she worked for was a Pacific of some kind or other. Too bad, the Western Pacific wasn't still around.