The original GP7's and 9's lasted a long time and individual units went through several major metamorphosis over the years, but really and truly they were always a Geep. Every railroad did their own thing with them as time went by, some far more radical than others.
Here is the picture history of one particular Geep on the CPR.
A predecessor modification and upgrade of five units prior to development of the Ten Year Locomotive Program. These units were later renumbered in new series 8200-8204 ex 8615, 8619, 8518, 8530, 8492.
All photographs L.B.Chapman unless otherwise credited.
8492 in original condition with barrel headlight and block lettering. GMD A690 10/1954 Alyth 5/12/1973
8492 rebuilt with sharp pointed chop nose, new style classification lights and high bell mount. Full size Multimark. Outshopped Ogden 5/24/1978 following wreck damage. Not upgraded. Rebuilt as 8204 (see below). No. 83 from Smiths Falls arriving Walkley yard Ottawa. 11/16/1979
8204 (2nd) ex 8492 rebuilt Ogden 5/1984. It has pointed chop nose. Small MultimarkNote-- The original 8204 was a GP35 renumbered to 5004
I'm not a big fan of diesels, and I'd suppose most of us on this site aren't, but I have to give credit where credit is due. Those GP7's and 9's were made of much sterner stuff than most people give them credit for. Truly great locomotives.
There's still some out there running around loose as I understand it.
Firelock-- Thanks for contributing to the post, you will likely be the only one!
Yes, Geeps were the real steam killers, the ones that finished that job all to well. It took me a long long time to warm up to them. It was always, yeah big deal another stinkin' Geep.
They certainly had some striking paint jobs. Most were quite good, always admired the CB&Q black/grey/ Route of the Zephyers, Everywhere West and then the Chinese Red. CNR/GTW/CV green and gold were pretty classy and made them look big and powerful.
It's a big deal to spot one now and kind of exciting but still it is hard to forgive their role in finishing off steam.
Funny; I've loved the GP7/9/18 look since I was old enough to know what they were.
I never really thought of thinking less of the Erie RS2s and 3s for eliminating K-class locomotives on commuter trains,either. Although I suppose part of that was being a few years too late to see Pacifics ... a problem I had chronically with steam and diesel all my early life.
I was never quite able to figure why Dick Dilworth thought the early Geeps were ugly -- even in GP10 form with those funky frogeye lights they were interesting ... and ah! the music 4 or 5 of them made idling. No amount of steam being 'alive' when idle makes anything like that music -- I didn't know as a child why DPM called it 'chanting' but I found out later!
It is a little thing, of course, compared to the other things that make people who remember actual steam love it so much. And I do not expect to get anyone closer to liking anything about diseasels, aside from 'rare catch' sightings and other circumstantial things. But much of what 'went away' is not so much steam as the whole way of life that corresponded with it -- most of the changes really carried steam along as collateral damage, like that footnote in the Kommissarbefehl, and would have happened no matter how efficient modern substitute power would be...
When you come right down to it, not only did Geeps kill off steamers, they did a pretty good job of killing the market for "Superman Diesels!"
Oh, 'scuse me, cab units!
Collateral damage indeed!
As an aside, on his last visit here my friend Shotgun Charlie was checking out my O gauge layout and collection and saw some Jersey Central diesels that weren't here on his last visit,
"What's with the diesels? I thought you didn't like diesels?"
"Uh, I don't, but they were on sale!"
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa...
If you look in the first photo you can see behind the cab where there is a yellow stripe that comes down from the roof and over a piece of grillwork. To paint that stripe a metal strip was welded to the grill and then painted.
Because so many components were interchangeable, many of those grills with the strips ended up in any position, when workers just grabbed the first grill on the pile. Before the end of the Ogden Shops in Calgary, and before the Geeps were sold, some enterprising individual took it upon himself to see that those grills with the strips ended up in the correct position behind the cab. Just painted black, it was kind of a sad reminder of what once was.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Interesting detail that I had no idea about, easy to overlook. Did other railroads have similar?
While I don't believe they gave it a name like the "10 year locomotive program", CN rebuilt a large number of Geeps, GMD1's, switchers and even SD40's starting around the same time. And while CP has retired theirs or rebuilt them into GP20's, CN's fleet of GP9RM's continues to soldier on, albeit in ever-shrinking numbers due to accidents.
Neat point about the grilles Bruce, I had always wondered how they got that yellow line on.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Miningman Interesting detail that I had no idea about, easy to overlook. Did other railroads have similar?
MiningmanDid other railroads have similar?
PRR put a little plate behind some added grilles on at least three BF-16 cab units, for the single stripe scheme. (In some cases they relettered with a longer or shorter font or spacing so the word 'Pennsylvania' cleared the vent screen without needing a plate for one of its letters!)
https://archive.org/stream/canadiantranspo00unkngoog#page/n293/mode/2up
Been to that plant many times. Had a girlfriend that worked there, she did patterns for the welding guys. They made the Humvees for the US military as well. Such a great place and so many jobs but it all went downhill rapidly when GM sold it to some hedge funds, then over to Caterpillar. Have not been there since I left Southern Ontario but the last I heard it was a place that made greeting cards and balloons!
Interesting the railroads depicted with their logos on the booklet put out by GMD London...no New York Central? Wabash, C&O, Great Northern are there but the CASO was not too far away. Perhaps not a customer in Canada, stuck with MLW/Alco? Not sure.
Diesel in the lyrics
Where you find these things!
Although much as I like 'wind up that Diesel' I have to wonder about the 'woo-woo' whistle reference right before it...
Looking carefully at the label I see this is "G.M.D. Limited, 78 RPM, D101. Title: Rollin' 'Cross the Country (on the CPR). By the Don Wright Septette and Vocal Group." I wonder if there is a B-side, and what's on it...
Is Wanswheel a Marvel Superhero or a DC Superhero?
I vote for Marvel, although Overmod refers to the Bat Signal, which would make him DC...however, I say he has Spidey-Sense, which puts him in the Marvel Camp....besides, Marvel is more humorous, fun and in touch with whats going on.
M636CI'm sure there are other examples....
The Pennsy EP20s, E7s that is, had four horizontal metal slats across the lower portion of the engine-room air intake grille, just behind the cab door as shown on the 5876 here:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=364669
These slats were to carry the gold-leaf and later Dulux Gold five stripes across the screening without interruption.
Even after repainting in Penn-Central black I rember seeing these slats as a vestige of what was once a great railroad.
Regards, Ed
Had a bittersweet moment two nights ago, just before leaving to drive to northeast Ohio. CN (sublettered IC) 9630 was running south on the old IC main, and the engineer shoved it into Run 8 a few hundred feet from the Broad Street crossing. That may be the last time I hear a Roots-blown four-stack EMD two-stroke at full throttle without any other extraneous noise. Just as magical even, I assume, with 645 parts as I remembered it.
Here are a pair of NYC Geeps in '63 in lightning stripes in the Falls.
NYC 6033_6036 GP9 GMD A1078 A1080 4/1957
A few years later, not to far away in Welland a lone Geep in a much less interesting paint scheme...Iguess they ran out of 'L's as the 'Centra' don't cut it!
NYC 5822 sitting by itself. (10 units 5818-5827) GMD A158 3/1951
The "L" is still there, it's just difficult to see it painted on the louvers.
It's kind of like Christmas ...Noel.
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