Nostalgia & History > Western Pacific #3002 heading for preservation

I'm happy to announce that former Western Pacific GP35 #3002 is now owned by the Union Station Foundation, and will be joining the collection of the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden, UT. It will eventually be restored to its 'as delivered' orange and silver scheme, hopefully sooner than later. It is exciting that we'll finally have the Western Pacific preserved and represented in Utah.  

A HUGE Thank you to the Arkansas Midland Railroad for the donation of this historic locomotive, which is currently Arkansas Midland Railroad #2500. 

There is some conflicting information online showing this unit behind former DQE D-6. However, we were able to verify it being former WP thanks to the engine rebuild tag it received after its rebuild in Boise in 1980..... as if the round headlight housing and dynamic brakes weren't enough to distinguish between DQE and WP ;) 

This unit should be leaving Arkansas in the next couple of weeks for its return home to Utah, via Union Pacific.  Also, a big thank you to Peter Arnold for the photos of WP 3002. AKMD 2500 photo found on rrpicturearchives.net (contributed by Stephie Kolata) 

- Derrick Klarr 

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That is great news.  Congratulations to this group and thank you for adding to the great collection you have already built.   I look forward to seeing it someday.  

Great news! Have any other second generation WP engines been preserved? Maybe a GP20 at Portola?

Yes, Portola has the GP20 number 2001. Other than the SW1500 recently acquired by portola, this is the first Second Generation locomotive. However, some consider the GP35 as the last of the first gen locos.

Great news!  A truly worthy locomotive and a worthy location.

TomG Wrote:

> Yes, Portola has the GP20 number 2001. Other than the SW1500 recently acquired by portola, this is the first Second Generation locomotive.

WP U30B 3051 at Portola, built in 1967 and riding on trade-in Blomberg trucks, is also very much a second generation diesel.

https://www.wplives.org/locomotivepages/wp3051.html

> However, some consider the GP35 as the last of the first gen locos.

I guess it depends on how you define diesel "generations."  Originally, the distinction between first and second generations was just that - when new diesels began replacing older diesels rather than steam.  That occurred around 1960, just about the same time the builders launched the GP20, U25B, and Century series to keep the railroads buying.  That definition of "generation" makes it difficult to clearly define subsequent generations (has CN retired the last of its GP9's yet?), so some authors use particular techonological improvements as the dividing line - the sealed carbody/central air intake that came with the GP30/U-boats/Century-series for second generation, microprocessors in the 60-series and Dash 8's for third generation. 

I've never read an article or heard anyone else claim that the GP35 was a first generation diesel, and I'm not sure what the basis would be for the break there except maybe the transition from the 567 prime mover to the 645.  That's kind of inconvenient as it applies only to EMD. By that metric, GE was still cranking out "first generation" diesels powered by the FDL when EMD was up to its "fourth generation" (201A, 567, 645, 710) and Alco had beaten both of them to the "third generation" before they left the business in 1969 (539, 244, 251, not counting oddballs like the 531 and 241) .  In any case, conventional railfan lingo doesn't seem to have embraced prime mover changes by individual builders as a way to define industry-wide diesel "generations."

Glad to hear the WP GP35 is being saved.  I know they were troublesome beasts, but I've always had a thing for GP35's.  Have the Utah folks done any cosmetic restoration on their RSD-15 yet?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/22 09:33 by Evan_Werkema.