Nostalgia & History > When SAL U30's were new

Growing up in Florida my brother and I were excited to go to the busy north end of the state in the late '60's
to catch motive power we seldom saw in Miami. When the bright green scheme and the new units came in I was after it all.
I know there were and are fans that hated the green, but I really liked it. One of my first chances to get sunny shots
of the 800's was here, just west of Baldwin, FL. The train was stopped awaiting a clear block into the yard. How I miss
the Seaboard and Kodachrome II. The 800's needed a decal on the nose, but otherwise were great!

Keith

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Nice shot! Thanks for the pic!

Now that's something! I have never seen a picture of one of these units on SAL, and never realized they had 'em, let alone any in that paint scheme. I'm with you, too, on that livery--I always liked it. Thanks for sharing! Kurt.

Beautiful shot, thanks for posting it! I never saw the U30B in this scheme, I was too young to travel then. I did see a GP40 in this scheme in the summer of 1976 when I was 10. I don't remember the number, but it did have Seaboard Coast Line lettering. It was on a local freight as the sole loco by the perimeter of the Miami International Airport. Only time I remember seeing this scheme.

Glad you folks like the SAL 800's. Here is the only other one I got a good shot of. Seaboard was very unfriendly
and getting rosters was best done away from facilities. This was a must have, though,and I went a short way into the
service area at Jacksonville, FL for this one. No motor drive in those days, and hand cranking I only took a few.

Keith

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Great photos! What was your camera/lens of choice back then? Thanks for sharing your work.

EMD 567,

In 1967 I had just been able to save enough to get my first Nikon, the gold standard of the time the good ol F.
Mostly I shot KII. I made the mistake prior to that of shooting some Ektachrome, and some went red, but mostly
I had mold grow on the Ektachrome and ruin some very rare shots. This was a real problem in humid climates
such as South Florida. I still shoot Nikon, F3 and FM. I have no use for digital cameras, with a vast slide
collection. But I do rely on digital scanning and the wonders of the computer age to add to fanning.

Keith

What is the story on the Blomberg trucks? Were they a special order or did they come from trade ins?

EMD trucks came from retired SAL F-3's 4022-4032.

4027 and trucks from 1911/1927/1963/1971/1979, which were all destroyed at Cherryville,N.C> 7/13/66 in head on between trains #45 and #46.

The trucks were sent to GE after the wreck and likely were used again on the U-30-B's. They were U-30-B under the hood, but had U-28-B car bodies.

All RE# SCL 1704-1718.