Eastern Railroad Discussion > CR Blue in snow

Not many opportunities left in the next few years to get photographs of CR blue paint with snow. The lead unit will likely be delegated to the dead line before seeing NS black paint. This shot is of I1T (extra 21T mail train) westbound in Logansport, IN on 2/16/03.

John Troxler

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Beautiful pic! Thanks for posting. I especially like how you can make out the crew on both sides of the cab.

One odd thing that I noticed about the GP40-2, its right class light has been plated over, but the left one is still there. Seems like they would have done both of them at the same time.

TripleCrown

Jeff:

The engineer\'s side class light patch is a rectangular piece of sheet steel and the conductor\'s side is a round piece. I\'ve got a feeling this unit will be heading for the dead line before it sees any NS black paint. Sure miss the CR red class lights.

John

I don\'t know but that looks like a sd40-2. I\'m guessing that will outlive the Dash 9\'s they are buying now. Long live EMD.

MT

That\'s a GP40-2. In Conrail days it would have had a 3300-series number. These days the ex-Conrail SD40-2\'s on NS have 3300/3400-series NS numbers, whereas in Conrail days they were between 6357-6521. From what I have read, the ex-Conrail GP40-2\'s are likely to be off the NS roster by the end of the year.

These units never had the red marker lights on the nose -- they had the clear-looking (with changeable colored lenses inside) class lights that were standard EMD equipment at the time. Among Conrail\'s EMD\'s, the red marker lights (not "class lights" since they were not intended or used for that purpose) appeared only on the SD50s and various SD60 models. Conrail\'s later GE Dash-7\'s (C36-7, C30-7A) also had them on the nose; I believe the early Dash-8\'s had red marker lights up by the numberboards, then they returned to the nose on the wide-nose Dash-8\'s. I don\'t recall what the 10 C30-7\'s had, but I\'m sure the B23-7s had class lights.

mttrainman wrote:

> I don\'t know but that looks like a sd40-2. I\'m guessing that
> will outlive the Dash 9\'s they are buying now. Long live EMD.
>
>
> MT

Sorry, study your NS rosters better. That\'s a GP40-2. Furthurmore, it\'s one of the CRCX (conrail leased) units that\'s earmarked for return before the end of the year. That\'s why everyone is assuming that it won\'t get NS paint.

While it\'s true that EMD dash 2 units were much better than early GE dash 7s, The playing field has been pretty much level since 1980. EMD produced a line of crap like the SD50, GP50, and GP60. Meanwhile GE got their act together and came up with great locomotives like the C40-8. Look at the scene today. For every C39-8 or B36-7 being retired, there are plenty of SD50s and GP50s in the scrapyard.

-Tim

mttrainman wrote:

> I don\'t know but that looks like a sd40-2. I\'m guessing that
> will outlive the Dash 9\'s they are buying now. Long live EMD.

actually, it\'s a GP40-2. The ex-CR SD40-2\'s are
numbered above the NS SD40-2\'s in the 3300 and
3400\'s. It\'ll still probably outlive the -9\'s ;^)
Has NS retired any ex-CR GP40-2\'s? (I don\'t think
they had any of their own). CSX has only retired
a handful of GP40-2\'s (all wrecked that I know
of, same with SD40-2\'s)

First and foremost, BEAUTIFUL PICTURE!!

Secondly, an SD50... crap??? you obviously don\'t run them...

~Kris
Conrail Enthusiast
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ConrailCorp/

Hi:
From what I heard only half the NS EX-CR GP40-2\'s will be returning to lessor (3038-3060) with CRCX
reporting marks.

ns-dash8

Thanks for sharing the great picture!

I have seen some of the Conrail GP40-2\'s with the red marker lights. Not to sure of the numbers...
but some of the last few in the group (3390\'s-3402....old CR numbers) had them.

ns-dash8 wrote:

> Hi:
> From what I heard only half the NS EX-CR GP40-2\'s will be
> returning to lessor (3038-3060) with CRCX
> reporting marks.

That\'s what I hear as well. The ones up through 3037 will reportedly be kept, and also are designated \'PRRX\'...


CR

Nice shot!

Andy

Sorry about the model-type mistake, I don\'t follow the NS roster that closely but I still maintain that these EMD\'s will last a long time. Noone can state seriously that GE out-does EMD in quality, now or ever. I guess one could argue that the 50 series had its problems but how can you mention the 60 series, too? I\'ve never had a 50 or 60 fail on me on the road. I can\'t say the same for the numerous GE locos I\'ve had bite the dust on me.

MT

I noted the response about certain GP40-2\'s having the red marker lights, so I went back to check my collection for a shot I knew I had of the CR 3401, which would have been one of the last ones built. Lo and behold, there are the red markers, right there on the nose. So the higher-numbered GP40-2\'s indeed must be so equipped.

Unfortunately, my collection is not arranged so as to facilitate finding out where in the series the class lights stop and the marker lights begin. But I suspect a unit low enough to be today\'s NS 3027 had class lights, not markers.

During the course of the research, I came across a shot of CR 6521, which I think was the top SD40-2 (can\'t recall if there was a 6522 or not). It had traditional class lights.

Their final order of GP40-2`s up to 3403 had red bug-eye class lights but none of the SD40-2`s up to 6524 or the GP38-2`s up to 8281 had them. CSX 4452 which was CR 3403 still has the red bug-eyes:

http://www.trainweb.org/csxphotos/photos/GP40-2/4452cr.jpg
http://www.trainweb.org/csxphotos/photos/GP40-2/4452CSX-bc.jpg


CSX 4447 ex CR 3390:

http://www.trainweb.org/csxphotos/photos/GP40-2/4447cr.jpg

CSX 2814 ex CR 8280:

http://www.trainweb.org/csxphotos/photos/GP38-2/2814cr.jpg

NS got the 8281

CSX 8868 ex CR 6524

http://www.trainweb.org/csxphotos/photos/SD40-2/8868cr.jpg

Tom

Here\'s a GP15-1 on the Beesleys Point secondary in Haddon Heights, NJ, on Jan 7, 2003.

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Yes SD50\'s are crap and so are GP50\'s. Look how many SD50\'s NS has retired already - with the rest hanging on only until more Dash 9\'s can replace them.
Larry

UP has gotten rid of alot of their SD50\'s too,
and I believe BN dumped a bunch of GP50\'s. CSX
had alot of problems with their SD50\'s, and ended
up rebuilding the entire fleet in the early 90\'s.