Western Railroad Discussion > Why the B23-7 Cotton Belt?

The 4th unit in this photo (closest to the camera)
is sublettered SSW. At the time these were purchased,
which I assume was about the same time as the GP60's,
why were they not lettered for the Cotton belt as were
the GP60's? I assume the SSW under the cab means that
SP let Cotton Belt buy this unit. I know by then it made
no difference, but was wondering why and since SSW did
buy at least one B23-7, were any of these lettered for
the Cotton Belt, complete with SSW on the bloody nose?
By-the-by, this was taken about a week ago at Dallas
Union Station.

i dunno man but that all SP consit is nice thats for sure

The SP/SSW units do look nice...another fine job Shane...btw..I've seen that rock or gravel train almost fly through Grand Prairie...it normally comes through town here doing about 60 mph....and when she's loaded, dust flying all over the place...

First off, the SP 7845 you are asking about is a B30-7. The Cotton Belt did not have any B23-7s, only the SP had them.

As for the sublettering, I would assume this was a former SSW B30-7 that was repainted and received SSW sublettering. I know several DRGW units repainted into the SP speed lettering scheme also received DRGW sublettering on the cab.

Craig Douglas
BNSF Editor CTC Board Magazine

ArgyleEagle wrote:
>
> The 4th unit in this photo (closest to the camera)
> is sublettered SSW. At the time these were purchased,
> which I assume was about the same time as the GP60's,
> why were they not lettered for the Cotton belt as were
> the GP60's? I assume the SSW under the cab means that
> SP let Cotton Belt buy this unit. I know by then it made
> no difference, but was wondering why and since SSW did
> buy at least one B23-7, were any of these lettered for
> the Cotton Belt, complete with SSW on the bloody nose?
> By-the-by, this was taken about a week ago at Dallas
> Union Station.

Neat pic. To answer your questions, that's a B30-7; Cotton Belt didn't own any of the similar-looking B23-7's, although SP had 15 of them, SP 5100-5114. The SP/SSW B30-7's were built in several different orders from January 1978 through April 1980. SP B30-7's were SP 7800-7883, SSW units were 7774-7799. AFAIK, none of the SSW B30-7's had large "SSW" lettering on the nose; they were all delivered with small SSW reporting marks and road number on the nose, and "COTTON BELT" lettering on the long hood. The last unit in the consist in your pic, 7845, was built March 1979. Why it's sublettered SSW I don't know, since in all my references it's listed as being originally bought by Espee. Maybe ownership of it was changed to SSW when it was overhauled and repainted, or maybe the guy in charge of putting SSW lettering on units got a bit anxious(definitely not the first time something like that has happened).

-Nameless Modeler

I have a video by Pentrix that shows one of these Loco's going over Donner with the SSW on the long hood and also on the nose. I will see if I can locate it tonight and tell you if this is so and the unit number.

There are no paint diagrams for "speed lettered" Cotton Belt lettering; so it had to be painted with SP speed lettering and SSW initials. The plan was to paint everything with SP speed lettering and use SSW and DRGW subletters to tell the previous owner.

Peter Arnold

ArgyleEagle wrote:
>
> The 4th unit in this photo

I only count 3 units...

ArgyleEagle wrote:

"The 4th unit in this photo....."

And then Mikey wrote:

"I only count 3 units..."

I thought I was losing my eye sight. I actually counted the units. There ARE only three of them.

I do like the all-Southern Pacific consist. I'm still partial to block lettering however.


Joe H.

Well, I stated 4 units, then I called them B23-7's.
Hmmmmm - wonder if I really took that at Dallas?
I think I am losing my freakin mind!