Western Railroad Discussion > SP "simple" lettering

Here is UP 8784, ex-SP 8233, at Bealville last November.

Notice the simple \\"SP\\" lettering. Another patched SD-40T-2 in the consist, UP 8801, ex-SP 8256, was also so lettered.

I had never seen this simple lettering prior to this. Did many other units receive it? Was this a result of long storage [by SP], notice the faded nose, then repair/reactivation and simple lettering? Or, simply cost savings during the decline of SP?

Thanks in advance,

Daniel

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Others will no doubt elaborate, but in short this is one of the 'Roseville Repaints' done on the sly long after the merger. They were a regular fixture on Turns out of Roseville to Oakland, San Jose, etc.

Saw one like this yesterday at Industry

The reason for post merger SP paint jobs was for paint disposal. If UP disposed of the paint as garbage, it'd be hazmat and big $$$$$ to do so. So they "disposed" of it by repainting some units with it.

Mike Derrick
Atlanta,GA

I believe ten or eleven SD40T-2s were repainted at Roseville. Let's see if I can remember them all...8232, 8233, 8241, 8247, 8250, 8256, 8258, 8259, 8261, 8263, 8296. (How'd I do?) A couple of the repaints have been retired and many others have been patched.

When first repainted, they looked the way freshly painted SP units should, but I think I read that the paint was not properly sealed so it faded pretty quickly, hence the pink noses and light gray hoods.

mderrick wrote:

> The reason for post merger SP paint jobs was
> for paint disposal.

That's one story that has been fielded. The
other popular story is that some SP units were
getting so badly faded that the PUC was making
noises about unidentifiable locomotives.

The real answer is probably "none of the above,"
but only the folks involved would know for sure.
The repaints were not sanctioned by Union Pacific,
as Omaha put a stop to them as soon as they found
out what was going on.

Pictures of the Roseville Repaints can be found
on Richard Percy's site, in the last table on
this page: http://espee.railfan.net/spsd40t-2.html