I'd like to create a lash up of three SP GP7's. I'm Googling all over... I see the Athearn and Athearn Genesis GP9s. Can't find evidence that SP Black Widow GP7s were ever released by anyone. Can anyone tell me of any that were released? Thanks!
Doublereefed,
Your search for SP GP-7s in any paint scheme is futile. SP didn't have any GP-7s. Cotton Belt had the only GP-7, unit number 304. It was delivered as the 320, during June 1950, in the orange and red "Daylight" scheme. As a passenger unit, it was steam generator equipped, lacked dynamic brakes and, unlike many boiler equipped road switchers of the era, kept its air reservoirs under the frame. In 1952 it was renumbered from 320 to 304. Even during the 1965 renumbering, it retained its three digit road number, the only EMD hood unit on the entire SP/SSW system to do so.
The 304 never lived up to expectations and was quickly demoted to a switcher, winding up on the SP proper in Houston. The early 1970s saw Precision National scouring the country for early geeps as fodder for the on-going Paducah rebuild program. As an oddball among SP's 339 unit fleet of GP-9s, it was quickly dispatched to Kentucky, in 1972, where it became Illinois Central Gulf 7986.
NHTX The 304 never lived up to expectations and was quickly demoted to a switcher, winding up on the SP proper in Houston. T
The 304 never lived up to expectations and was quickly demoted to a switcher, winding up on the SP proper in Houston. T
That statement is not true. The 304 was often used on local assignments which often included switching. The local crews liked the 304 because it had a fast acting throttle and would load quickly. I have it from two Cotton Belt employees, Wild Bill and Super Jess, that the 304 was assigned to the Camden Local and the two locals that operated in and out of Camden on a regular basis. Those would be Pine Bluff to Camden #65 & #66 (73 miles) and Lewisville to Camden #67 & #68 (52 or 64 miles with the added Magnolia Spur) local trains that operated to Camden one day and returned the next. The 304 also worked the Greenville Dodger 28 miles and Sulphur Springs Switcher 38 miles out of Commerce in 1972, which was one of the last Cotton Belt assignments for the unit before it was shipped off to Houston for dispostion.
Cotton Belt's only GP7 was a road switcher to the end.
Ed in Kentucky
The information I presented was gleaned from the book "Cotton Belt Locomotives" by noted SP/SSW author Joseph A. Strapac, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-33601-5, pages 155-158, and page 236. It must not have met someone's expectations because, in the four years between its delivery and the arrival of the first GP-9s in 1954, no more GP-7s were ordered. Cotton Belt instead opted for Alco RS-3s. The 320/304 was ordered as a "passenger" locomotive that in fact turned out to be a better switcher, thus the disatisfaction with the unit? Cotton Belt was not awash in passenger traffic in the post war years.
Not prototypical but Athearn did make a black widow GP7 as a dummy unit with a plastic frame, trucks, and wheels. This was the version with the too wide hoods and was marketed as a GP9 but it is really a GP7.
I don't know if it was ever available as a powered model but the shell fits on later powered chassis.
Mark Vinski
Yes, the Athearn "GP-9" (really a 7) goes back to the days of rubber band drives and dummy locomotives, in the late 1950s. They had two speeds-stop and went really fast.
doublereefed
That looks like a Nine to me. No louvers on the battery box immediately below the cab and wide handrail stanchions. IIRC, and I might not, most GP7s had louvers under the cab windows and thin, round handrail stanchions.
Aaron
SP"s first GP-9s were actually ordered for the Texas and New Orleans subsidiary, with delivery in May of 1954. They had some features that set them apart from Pacific Lines units. T&NO early GP-9s had Mars headlights, instead of the Pyle twin sealed beam headlights found on subsequent Pacific lines engines. The Mars headlight differs from the Pyle by having the two bulbs and reflectors behind a glass lens. The T&NO units were delivered without the oscillating light packages SP is famous for. Large "ashcan" Mars oscillating headlights were a later addition. At some point in time these lost favor with SP and were removed system wide. T&NO GP-9s could still be found as late as UP day in 1996, in scarlet and grey, without all of the gyralights, handling switching or other work suitable for 40 year old locomotives!
The first T&NO order of 25 engines was typical of the way the railroads rushed to finish dieselization. Four, 280-283, had dual cab controls and steam generators for passenger service. Ten, 240-249 had a conventional cab set-up and a steam generator for dual service. The remaining eleven, 410-419 were strictly freight units.
The Athearn Genesis units referred to by the OP, in the 430 series, represent locomotives from the May 1956 order. By this time, the EMD fabricated handrail stanchion found on the SD-7 and early GP and SD-9, had been replaced by the stamped example we know so well.
Those with an interest in the SP GP-9s might want to find a copy of "Southern Pacific Historic Diesels, Vol. 7, Electro-Motive GP-9 Locomotives" by Joseph A. Strapac, ISBN 0-930742-21-4.