Nostalgia & History > Gone But Not Forgotten

Fans of the Rio Grande GP30 were fortunate. Much of the fleet were still active up until the UP/SP merger in '96. My personal favorite was the first GP30 of the fleet, the 3001. It was repainted in "billboard Grande" regalia with a coat of durable Imron paint in 1975.

Here's the 3001 heading down Rio Grande's 32 mile Tintic Branch on Utah's "Pioneer Day" in 1989. The train of 32 hoppers will trade loads for empties at Keigley quarry, a dolomite mine and loadout at milepost 16. The outbound "rock" loads will be delivered at the giant steel mill at Geneva.

James

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Those were good days. One of my favorite Rio Grande days was catching the "Midvale Tramp" with three GP30s and a caboose. - Tony J.

I always liked GP30's until I had to work in them, then I gained a new perspective. The doors are too narrow and you'd bump your radio everytime you went out. I don't know how the heavy old guys made out in them. The doors are smaller than other GP's for some reason.

DRGW3002 was my personal favorite, along with UP's GP30 fleet.

tolland Wrote:
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> The doors are smaller than other GP's
> for some reason.
>

And the ceilings lower.

The GP30 was and is one of my favorite units. Hiring out on the UP in the late 70's there were still plenty of them running around. They were being used on all of the locals at that time.
As for the DRGW GP30's there was one left after the merger at East Yard in L.A.. I believe it was the 3011. We had a yardmaster there (Jay if your out there, help me out here) that kept the unit from going to the grim reaper for quite some time it the early 2000's. They kept wanting him to send it to the shop each week but he kept it out in the yard, knowing that it was on it's last hurrah. Unfortunately he went on his days off and returned to find the unit had been shipped out, never to be seen again.-BMT

UPNW2-1083 Wrote:

> As for the DRGW GP30's there was one left after
> the merger at East Yard in L.A.. I believe it was
> the 3011. We had a yardmaster there (Jay if your
> out there, help me out here) that kept the unit
> from going to the grim reaper for quite some time
> it the early 2000's.

3015 maybe? Back when folks were tracing the final D&RGW GP30's in the late 90's, there were two or three in home territory in Colorado, and the 3015 knocking around California. I managed to catch it leading the San Jose turn one day. At the time, the turn was still based out of Oakland, CA. As I watched and photographed the crew doubling their train over, I overheard the comment on the radio, "Why would anyone want a picture of this piece of junk?" Oh well...I kept shooting. Don Strack's site shows 3015 retired in May 1999. The last two Grande GP30's, 3002 and 3003, were retired in July 1999.