Eastern Railroad Discussion > SCL GPs

Here's a pretty typical 1979 scene at Rocky Mount on arriving with a thru freight from Richmond.

The GPs were beat, but they still had a lot of life left in 'em and we used to use them for everything from locals to the wood yards, road switchers and yard "butt heads" to a little extra power for the road freights. It took a lot to kill them...and SCL rebuilt them and got more use out of them.

Any of the chop nosed rebuilds left?

James

Great stuff!
Did you ever get down to Collier Yard about that time? It was like a second home to me at the time. I visited less frequently after the Seaboard System mergers. I was usually at the North end of the yard, by the BX lead, and had a red '69 Chevelle SS. Man do I miss those geeps, and that car!

there are no chop nosed rebuilds left on csx (dubbed GP16), but there are plenty still out there on shortlines...

js7 wrote:
> Any of the chop nosed rebuilds left>

If you're still in the general area, the Buckingham Branch RR over in Dillwyn, VA currently has 3 of the GP16s. One unit is still in FLS paint, and is a parts source. The other two are in BBRR colors, and numbered 2 and 3. The 2 is on line at Dillwyn, and the 3 is at the Shenandoah Valley RR, behind the County offices, in Verona, VA. BBRR is the operator of the SVRR, which is former Chesapeake Western RR.

There is another GP16 on the base at Ft Eustis, VA, USA #4635. For the last several years, it has been decorated with lights and 3 ft tall candy canes at Christmas time, and placed at Seay Plaza(On base) as a sort of lawn ornament. Makes for a nice night photo, if you can get a shot without the traffic on the nearby roads streaking the shot.

Another GP16 is on the Commonwealth Rwy, out of Suffolk, VA. It is numbered 444, and operates with a CF7, number 517.

Yeah....went through Collier all the time. Working out of Acca, Collier was sort of like a black hole. You just got in there and couldn't get out.....

Collier Yard is where I worked with Doug Ridell, the SCL (now Amtrak) engineer that has written for Trains and has a book out now. Nice guy to work with and one of the few working "railfans" (other than myself )on SCL that would admit it! Haven't seen Doug in many years.

The '69 Chevy was quite a car....I drove a '73 VW myself at the time :-).

If you're into SCL stuff from that era, drop me a note at my Trainorders mailbox and I'll send you some more. I'm saving up to get my N&W stuff from then scanned. Norfolk and Roanoke were like operating museums then...Alco heaven...even a FM Trainmaster!

js