Nostalgia & History > Two views of new SP units days and miles apart

In my collection of railroad photos, I recently discovered a couple of photos of the same engine units --- with the photos being taken a few days (and about 150 miles) apart.

Picture One shows three new General Motors EMD GP-60 locomotives on the head end of a westbound Southern Pacific train that had just departed from SP's Kansas City, KS (Armourdale Yard) terminal on an unknown date in May of 1991. This was a publicity photo that was sent out to various news media outlets on May 21 of 1991, telling the story about the SP purchasing 55 of the new units, which were rated at 3,800-horsepower.

Picture Two shows the same three units on an eastbound SP train just northeast of Herington, KS, on May 16, 1991. Note the new units are pulling entirely different shipments in the two views.

My guess is that the publicity photo was taken first as the units were traveling to the West Coast. The photo was probably not sent out for a few days, because the film had to be developed. prints made and a news release typed up on an electric typewriter. I accidentally happened to take a photo of the engines as they returned eastward from California a few days later. I had received no tip about the train passing through Herington.

The first two units are Nos. 9721 and 9722. Number of the third unit is unknown, since it isn't visible.

Oh, how I loved the SP color scheme. It makes me sad to see the condition of the aging ex-SP units still in service in 2013 on the Union Pacific.

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The Herington shot is particularly fine! Would that be on the former RI?

Andy

Yes, this is on the Golden State Route at Herington, with the name dating back decades.

What is interesting is that the former Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad maintained double main lines between Herington and Topeka. The Southern Pacific/SSW then chopped up one of the mains in the '80s and went with some long sidings.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/13 17:30 by thtinc41ed.

Back in 1973, I photographed a five-unit set of consecutively numbered brand new SP SW1500s leading a westbound Rock Island freight at Joliet, IL. Rock Island apparently got a "break-in fee" from SP for "testing" new units before they hit SP rails. About two weeks later, I received a series of photos from my pal Danny in Fort Worth, TX. His photos showed the exact same locos all derailed in a pileup north of Fort Worth that happened five days prior! I wonder what what kind of fee SP paid RI for this kind of break-in?

Neat stuff! The red and gray sure looked great when new and clean.
This is a longshot, but could the second photo have hapened before the first? The plow looks cleaner in the second photo, leading one to think the units had less miles on them. Just a guess.

My thought all along has been that the public relations guy shot the first picture (or hired a commercial photographer) during the time that the units made their first trip westward.