Nostalgia & History > Where Uncle Pete went to die...

…and get rebuilt for extended life!

In May of 1977 I made a little vacation trip to Nashville, TN. Me ‘n the Missus (at the time) stayed with my Aunt & Uncle for the better part of 3 days. Of course we got a grand tour of as much of Nashville as we could, but I still managed to finagle a couple of mornings to go snooping around the RR scene. I shot lots of L&N stuff, along with the the Amtrak/Autotrain combined train 2 days in a row.

But during the trip out I took the opportunity to stop and do some shooting in both Mt Vernon, IL (Precision National) & Paducah, KY (ICG). I was only able to get a few ‘grab’ from outside the fence at Mt Vernon, but with it being a Sunday afternoon I had a virtual free run of the Shop grounds at Paducah. I got tons of IC/ICG/GM&O deadline shots, along with these specimens of 1st generation power of the yellow & gray persuasion.

A few weeks ago I was digging thru some Gibson slides for an un-related thread. I found 3 UP shots Bill took in Paducah, KY in May of 1978. I recalled my trek through Paducah a year earlier, so I tossed his scanned images into a file and went digging for my UP/Paducah slides. I found 8 slides and went to work in Photoshop.

I’ll have to let someone else fill in the final disposition info on the UP units. I’m guessing they were all rebuilt and put into service elsewhere…

1. UP 321B (at Mt Vernon, IL).

2. UP 136B.

3. UP 152B.
(images #2 & #3 taken at Paducah, KY)



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/22 01:22 by santafe199.

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4. UP 159B.

5. UP 165B.

6. UP 173B.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/22 01:24 by santafe199.

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7. UP 178B.

8. UP 188B.
(images #4 ~ #8 also taken at Paducah, KY)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/22 01:26 by santafe199.

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9. 10. & 11. General Paducah Shops scenes.
(images #9 ~ #11 by William A. [Bill] Gibson Sr. at Paducah, KY on May 14, 1978)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/22 01:27 by santafe199.

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Later on while in train service for the Santa Fe I witnessed some more 1st generation yellow & gray units ending the UP era of their service years:

12. UP 145 is trailing in consist on a Santa Fe Texas-bound manifest, rolling through El Dorado, KS on March 15, 1980.

13 & 14. UP 145 is now in AT&SF clutches at Cleburne, TX on May 28, 1980. I believe it will become a Santa Fe slug (?).



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/22 01:29 by santafe199.

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15. & 16. I worked train 325 A-1 (w/ ATSF 2599 leading) with 3 more UP geeps tucked in behind leased B&O (Chessie) 3700. They are as follows: UP 243, 267 & 255. Phots taken April 1, 1981 at Gladstone, KS.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/22 01:31 by santafe199.

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Lance, those UP GP9B and SD24B at Paducah went into the "Paducah rebuild" program. All had cabs added to them. The early-mid 70's was a wild time to be train watching on the ICG as Geeps from all of the place were running around waiting their turn to become "Paducahbilt" locos (well, at least those the could run). One of my biggest surprises was the day I went to the IC yard in Memphis to do a little roster shooting and came up on a St Johnsbury and Lamoille County GP7 or 9 (I'd have to dig the slide out to be sure which model it was). For a young railfan that was quite a find!

The SD24's became SD20's (ICG's term). A friend who was an engineer for ICG said he hated those SD20's. He said you could take one up in the air 2 miles in a C5A and drop it, and it not be doing 10 mph when it hit the ground.

B units, headless horsepower?

Such great shots from the past. B units were neat and we must appreciate a larger railroad's purchasing ideas that had plenty of A units.
Brian Stevens

santafe199 Wrote:

> 13 & 14. UP 145 is now in AT&SF clutches at
> Cleburne, TX on May 28, 1980. I believe it will
> become a Santa Fe slug (?).

Yep, ATSF slug 116, later renumbered ATSF 1116 and BNSF 3960.

I think we're all happy you found these images.

the GP-9 that was her in Eustis fl on the dinner train was org. i was told a cabless up GP-9 it head the yok air cleaner so it was a ic rebuild the dinner train is gone and the engine went to the turest RR in palmetto fl

> A friend who was an engineer for ICG said he hated those
> SD20's.

RR Rule #1: All engineers gripe.
RR Rule #2: No amount of griping repeals Rule #1.

I thought it was kind of a funny comment.


ctillnc Wrote:
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> > A friend who was an engineer for ICG said he
> hated those
> > SD20's.
>
> RR Rule #1: All engineers gripe.
> RR Rule #2: No amount of griping repeals Rule #1.

Rathole Wrote: > I thought it was kind of a funny comment.

It WAS! I enjoyed it, and love the ironic humor in the statement. I would have commeted earlier, but I was too involved with weeding down, dating & location ID-ing the 400 some-odd jokes I shot yesterday (all day... ;^)

Lance

In Photo 9, ex-GM&O 810B was rebuilt to become MBTA 1111 and served Boston, MA commuters from North Station.

* JB *