Nostalgia & History > Flare Friday: a flare for testing

An interesting scene here for ‘Flare Friday’: The class unit of Uncle Pete’s 6-pack of the new GP-40X model appears to be in some sort of testing, presumably over D&RGW’s Tennessee Pass? Other than March 1978 & the location of Leadville, CO there’s no other info available from this trader slide in Jim Watson’s collection. Would anyone care to expand?

1. UP 9000 in naked Armour yellow with an EMD test vehicle in March of 1978 in Leadville, CO.
(photo by F. Hol Wagner Jr. from the James W. Watson collection)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Jim Watson (UP6900)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/22 22:48 by santafe199.

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Who woudda thunk?

UP 9000, the first GP40X completed, did high altitude testing on the Tennessee Pass line in February and March 1978. Much like the SBD SD50s that tested on Raton Pass a few years later, 9000 had only the base paint applied. Following the testing, it returned to La Grange for full UP paint.

Word traveled fast about this unit testing here in Colorado back in 1978 and I'm sure many of us got shots of it in the same places. Here it is in Monument, CO in March of 1978. I also shot it in Denver, at Burnham shops, and I believe around Palmer Lake. In a couple of instances I was not alone when I was shooting this unit, but don't ask me who else was there back then!

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valmont Wrote: > Word traveled fast about this unit testing here...

I can certainly understand all the buzz. In our neck-o-the-woods the new Santa Fe 3800s seemed to generate a little bit more excitement than other previous 'new models' to the ATSF roster.

Lance

Nice scheme; right railroad!

yellow fever flavor