Eastern Railroad Discussion > Question About GP7s/GP9s

In the 1950's era, were there any Class I railroads that didn't buy GP7s and GP9s?

cdub wrote:

> In the 1950's era, were there any Class I railroads that
> didn't buy GP7s and GP9s?
>
> [%sig%]

Not sure what was defined as a Class 1 back then but there were a few railroads that dieselised largely with non EMD products.
The Virginian mostly replaced steam with FM products.
Also, if I'm not mistaken, the SP&S was all Alco during the diesel era.
I'm sure there are others that I'm forgetting. Hopefully someone out there has a better memory than me!
--jag

> In the 1950's era, were there any Class I railroads that
> didn't buy GP7s and GP9s?

Virginian and Tennessee Central both owned no EMD locomotives. The Virginian was merged away early in the diesel era, but the TC ran until 1968. The TC Email List is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tennesseecentral

The Monon's owned no EMD hood units; their EMD purchases were limited to switchers, F units and a few BL2. The BL2 Email List is at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BL2

Lehigh & Hudson River, Lehigh & New England, both of which were predominantly Alco roads. Also I don't think New York, Ontario, & Western had any.

RR's with no GP7/9's were D&H, GM&O, Virginian, Monon, NYO&W, TC, L&HR, L&NE, and PGE. I probably am missing a few, though. Also SP had no GP7's, but bought hundreds of GP9's; although subsidiary SSW had one GP7. SP&S had boiler equipped GP9's for passenger service along with F3's, F7's and E7's.

Peter Arnold

Add Norfolk Southern(original) and Savannah and Atlanta to the list. (I do not know if they would qualify as class one railroads or not.)

Interestingly NS (the original) did buy the GP9's successor... the GP18.

Galen Wright
Lynchburg, VA
K4CnO

Looking through Seventies rosters, I came across a couple of roads with no Geeps lists. These include Belt Railway Co. of Chicago, DM&IR, EJ&E and B&LE.

Interestingly, the Rio Grande was listed with a single GP7 in 1973.

Also, what about the Long Island RR?

The Belt Ry. of Chicago definitely had Geeps. I saw some at Clearing on several occasions. But they might have been second-hand? The Indiana Harbor Belt would be another in the same category, since their roster was all-switcher until just a few years ago. But I suspect these weren't Class 1 roads.

It doesn't surprise me that the EJ&E, B&LE, and DM&IR did not -- all owned by US Steel, they dieselized with SD9s. Whether they were Class 1's or not at the time, I don't know.

I don't think the LIRR had Geeps.

You need to look at all time rosters. DRGW had 14 GP7's and 24 GP9's. BRC definately had both GP7's and GP9's in the 470 and 480 series.

Peter Arnold

I found my 1973 "Railroad Magazine Roster Book" by Wayner ! (I moved last year and hadn't unpacked everything yet) It lists Belt Railway of Chicago as having GP7's #470-477 and GP9's #480-481 built new for them.
Also, you can add Colorado & Southern as not having any GP7/9's. Fort Worth & Denver also didn't have any new; but BN traded four GP7's to them in 1972.

Peter Arnold

Add Rutland RR to the list. They had Alco RS1's and RS3's and a GE 70 tonner.

pismopete wrote:

> RR's with no GP7/9's were D&H, GM&O, Virginian, Monon, NYO&W,
> TC, L&HR, L&NE, and PGE. I probably am missing a few, though.
> Also SP had no GP7's, but bought hundreds of GP9's; although
> subsidiary SSW had one GP7. SP&S had boiler equipped GP9's for
> passenger service along with F3's, F7's and E7's.
>
> Peter Arnold
>
> [%sig%]

Add P&WV (FM and 1 Baldwin AS-616), Long Island (Alcos & FM's), NYS&W RS-1's and S-2's.