SP SD7 on the move

JJ · **Posted:** Sun Apr 20, 2003 4:02 pm

It's been reported that SP SD7 1518 is on the move , possibly headed to the Illinois Railway Museum. Anyone confirm this?

Tom Cornillie · **Posted:** Sun Apr 20, 2003 4:56 pm

> It's been reported that SP SD7 1518 is on
> the move , possibly headed to the Illinois
> Railway Museum. Anyone confirm this?

Reports on the Yahoo Group Loconotes state that the unit is in Chicago's south suburbs at Yard Center, on the former C&EI.

rrhistorian@hotmail.com

L Beckman · **Posted:** Sun Apr 20, 2003 7:23 pm

> Reports on the Yahoo Group Loconotes state
> that the unit is in Chicago's south suburbs
> at Yard Center, on the former C&EI.

Concerning the report on SP SD7 #1518 going to IRyM, isn't the C&NW GP-7 already at IRyM also numbered 1518?

midlandblb@cs.com

Earl Pitts · **Posted:** Sun Apr 20, 2003 10:56 pm

> Concerning the report on SP SD7 #1518 going
> to IRyM, isn't the C&NW GP-7 already at
> IRyM also numbered 1518?

Yes. CNW 1518 was originally EMD 100, the very first GP built.

SP 1518 was originally EMD 990, the very first SD built.

It would be nice if IRM restored it to it's EMD colors and number.

L Beckman · **Posted:** Mon Apr 21, 2003 11:21 am

> Yes. CNW 1518 was originally EMD 100, the
> very first GP built.

> SP 1518 was originally EMD 990, the very
> first SD built.

> It would be nice if IRM restored it to it's
> EMD colors and number.

Might be a sensible way for IRyM to avert having two locomotives with the same road number! Anyone out there at IRyM diesel department care to comment?

midlandblb@cs.com

Alan · **Posted:** Mon Apr 21, 2003 12:48 pm

I would be interested to find out if SP 1518 was going to IRM as several museums in California requested this locomotive, including ours - the Niles Canyon Railway Museum/Pacific Locomotive Association, from Union Pacific and were told it was unavailable. UP had plans to keep it along with its other historic diesels - at least this is what we were told 3 or 4 years ago.

> Yes. CNW 1518 was originally EMD 100, the
> very first GP built.

> SP 1518 was originally EMD 990, the very
> first SD built.

> It would be nice if IRM restored it to it's
> EMD colors and number.

http://www.ncry.org
siegwarth@grsi.net

Kevin Gillespie · **Posted:** Tue Apr 22, 2003 4:53 am

> Might be a sensible way for IRyM to avert
> having two locomotives with the same road
> number! Anyone out there at IRyM diesel
> department care to comment?

I have no connection with IRM, but I see nothing wrong with two locomotives from two different railraods carrying the number 1518. I think it's a neat historic irony that the first GP7 and the first SD7 were both numbered 1518 by their respective owners. I say leave the numbers ALONE!

kevin.r.gillespie@verizon.net

Earl Pitts · **Posted:** Tue Apr 22, 2003 2:20 pm

> I have no connection with IRM, but I see
> nothing wrong with two locomotives from two
> different railraods carrying the number
> 1518. I think it's a neat historic irony
> that the first GP7 and the first SD7 were
> both numbered 1518 by their respective
> owners. I say leave the numbers ALONE!

Maybe, but think of it like this:

The SD7 has little or no significance as just another, run-of-the-mill, SP SD7.

It's real historic value is as it left the factory (as an EMD painted, lettered and numbered unit) and toured the railroads, which lead to the sales of SD7's, SD9's and on up to the SD70's, SD80's and SD90's of today.

And EMD had quite a presence in IRM's back yard;
LaGrange is't that far away. What better way to preserve the memoty of the EMD plant and it's huge production?

Besides that, how many other "firsts" or preserved demos are preserved as such? I can't think of a single one. IMO, that is an area of rail preservation that has been almost completely overlooked in the mad rush to "retro" paint schemes or phoney schemes (painting locos in colors they never wore).

Erik Ledbetter · **Posted:** Tue Apr 22, 2003 8:05 pm

> Besides that, how many other
> "firsts" or preserved demos are
> preserved as such? I can't think of a single
> one.

EMD 103 FT B-unit at Virginia Museum of Transportation--a B-unit from the "demonstrator that did it," displayed in her EMD demo colors.

eledbetter@rypn.org

Tom Cornillie · **Posted:** Tue Apr 22, 2003 9:03 pm

> EMD 103 FT B-unit at Virginia Museum of
> Transportation--a B-unit from the
> "demonstrator that did it,"
> displayed in her EMD demo colors.

This unit is not actually from the FT-103 ABBA set. Rather, it was part of a Southern AB set and it was later converted to a steam generator car. It was only cosmetically restored to represent one of the missing B units. The A unit, FT 103A, is still displayed in St. Louis in its demonstrator scheme, as it was restored to in 1989.

rrhistorian@hotmail.com

Erik Ledbetter · **Posted:** Tue Apr 22, 2003 9:24 pm

It was only cosmetically
> restored to represent one of the missing B
> units.

DRAT! Caught by the old paint job. Oh, well, another innocent victim of replication...

eledbetter@rypn.org

Rob Davis · **Posted:** Wed Apr 23, 2003 9:06 am

Erik,

Isn't that facadism, too? She's not internally an FT anymore.

Rob

> It was only cosmetically

> DRAT! Caught by the old paint job. Oh, well,
> another innocent victim of replication...

rdavis@rypn.org

Dan Cupper · **Posted:** Wed Apr 23, 2003 11:05 am

> I have no connection with IRM, but I see
> nothing wrong with two locomotives from two
> different railroads carrying the number
> 1518. I think it's a neat historic irony
> that the first GP7 and the first SD7 were
> both numbered 1518 by their respective
> owners. I say leave the numbers ALONE!

FWIW, this wouldn't be a precedent. The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania displays two steam locomotives with the same road number, 1187 -- a RDG Camelback 0-4-0 (owned by Strasburg RR) and a PRR H3-class 2-8-0.

Dan Cupper
Harrisburg, Pa.

cupper@att.net

Boyd Owens · **Posted:** Wed Apr 23, 2003 11:13 am

As I recall, at the time this unit was selected to represent one of the missing b-units, it was one of only two FT B-units that still existed. The other one was a former NP unit that was in Mexico. Anyone know if the Mexican/NP unit was saved for preservation? I know when the Mexican railways were sold by the Mexican government that most of the old diesels down there (and sadly, vintage passenger cars as well) were all scrapped.

Boyd

bowens@rypn.org

L Beckman · **Posted:** Wed Apr 23, 2003 7:28 pm

> FWIW, this wouldn't be a precedent. The
> Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania displays two
> steam locomotives with the same road number,
> 1187 -- a RDG Camelback 0-4-0 (owned by
> Strasburg RR) and a PRR H3-class 2-8-0.

> Dan Cupper
> Harrisburg, Pa.

Dan: I only suggested that IRyM might want to repaint and renumber the SD7 with the EMD paint job and number because IRyM does seem to like to operate their equipment at times and dispatching with two locomotives with the same number could represent a problem. Of course you could dispatch with the road intials added to the road numbers. And since no one from IRyM came on about this, I assume they forsee no problem.

Les

midlandblb@cs.com