Personally I'd kind of like to see them paint the #6071 back to it's original GM&O paint and number. Those GM&O SD40s were really sharp.
This is the #902, which was involved in the head-on collision that prompted purchase of SD40 prototype #950. The #902 was knocked out of service until it could be repaired, and it destroyed whatever it collided with (I can't find what it hit, other than it was an EMD GP) and down two locomotives, the GM&O bought EMDX #434 to fill the gap
Three GM&O SD40s crossing a diamond at Joliet in 1971. The GM&O made do for a long time with lots of first-generation diesels, Alco FA-1s, RS-1s and RS-3s and EMD F3s and F7s, and it wasn't until the '60s that they bought new power. All of it came from EMD, in the form of GP30s, GP35s, GP38s, GP38ACs and SD40s. They also ushered in new liveries, after years of the red, maroon and gold. The GP30s and GP35s came in a striking black and white livery, while the SD40s were dressed in this red and white paint scheme, and the GP38s came in a different red and white livery.
A GP35, in the black and white GM&O livery, and a GP38AC, in the red and white, pass by the old Tolono depot. The white and orange Geep behind them is an indicator that the Illinois Central Gulf merger has been consummated, but shockingly, this is from 1988, so GM&O had been gone for 16 years
A rare sight: clean locomotives on the GM&O. Two shiny SD40s lead a freight south at Bloomington, Illinois
A southbound freight, led by three GP30s and a GP35, rolls through an S-curve near Scooba, Mississippi. The GP30s and GP35s rolled on trucks taken from traded-in Alco FAs, as well as the GE traction motors from the Alcos. This was a $5000 discount per locomotive from EMD, and there were quite a few railroads rolling around on Alco-trucked GP30s as a result. Also, note the white flags flying on the #501, indicating that this is an unscheduled extra.
A GP30 and the FA-1 that they were replacing at Meridian, Mississippi. The FA-1 is pretty interesting because the GM&O got some of the very first ones that Alco turned out. At that point, Alco hadn't quite finalized the design and the headlight and surrounding grille were mounted below the curve of the headlight, unique to just the first batch of GM&O FA-1s. The number board mounted over the windshield was also a unique GM&O spotting feature on their FAs. While the GP30s would put the FAs in the ground, the Alco S-2 switcher to the right would live on until the very end of the GM&O.
Four GM&O GP30s head north with iron ore from Venzuela. The iron ore was transloaded from ships to rail cars at Mobile and then hauled to steel mills in Birmingham by the Geemo.
A pair of GM&O GP35s sit in the fog at Meridian. These wore the same black and white livery as the GP30s, but its interesting that the #644 has big GM&O lettering on the nose, while the #606 doesn't.
A collection of SD40s on the ready tracks at Meridian. The second unit in the lashup on the right is the #950, the old EMD SD40 prototype, and on the left is the #913, which is also kind of an interesting story. The #913 was delivered to the GM&O in September, 1966 and was to be renumbered ICG #6062 after the merger but was never renumbered before it caught fire in the mid-1980's near Kentucky Dam. Consider the locomotive's road number, 9+1+3 and you get 13. Also, #913's builder's number was 32161, and again, 3+2+1+6+1 equals 13.
Two GP35s bracket two GP30s, including class leader #500, depart from Meridian Yard.
Three SD40s lead a southbopund freight extra of pipe headed for Mobile.
An SD40 and two GP35s arc through a cut, on their way from Union, Mississippi to Jackson.
Four GP30s, led by class leader #500, handle the Union Turn, from Meridian to Union.
The Union Turn arrives in snow-dusted Union Yard behind the #500.
A GP35 waits to leave Union Yard, while a freight arrives in off the road behind an SD40.
Eleven years after the GM&O ceased to exist, it still looks alive and well, as three of the black and white GP35s, not even renumbered or with the GM&O lettering patched over, lead a coal train through Joliet, Illinois on their way to the Commonwealth Edison power plant. These big coal drags were a regular operation back during the GM&O era and that continued into the ICG era.
A crewman drops off of an ICG freight with old GM&O GP35s for power.
An ex-GM&O GP35 headed north at Joliet with a short ICG local.
There was some excellent news yesterday, in that Arcade & Attica 2-8-0 #18's boiler was finally reunited with the frame after the boiler was out at Mack Brothers in Syracuse, NY for work since 2018. Arcade & Attica overhauled the locomotive and placed it back in operation in 2008, but took it out of service in 2018 after it was discovered to need heavy boiler and firebox work. The frame and running gear was shipped out to Gramling Locomotive Works in Ashley, Indiana and returned last year, after what is believed to be the most in-depth overhaul since it was built. The boiler returned yesterday, with the firebox being completely replaced, and was lowered onto the frame. According to the Arcade & Attica, they plan to have the #18 up and running again next spring. The #18 is the sole operating large steam locomotive in New York, so it'll be great to have it back.
The #18, back when it was fully assembled and operational. It's not original to the Arcade & Attica, having been built by Alco for a Cuban sugar mill but never being delivered (not unlike Everett #11) and then was sold to Charcoal Iron Co. of America at Newberry, MI in November of 1920. In 1946 it was sold to the Boyne City Railroad in Boyne City, MI, and it wasn't until 1962 that it came to the Arcade & Attica. Seeking additional income to supplement flagging freight revenue, they purchased No. 18 and two DL&W Boonton commuter coaches from Erie-Lackawanna and began running steam-powered excursions.
The Arcade & Attica does actually have a second steam locomotive, 4-6-0 #14, but it hasn't run since 1988. That locomotive was built by Baldwin in 1918 for the Escanaba & Lake Superior and was operated in regular service until 1953, then hung around on the E&LS to melt snow until 1963. It arrived on the A&A one year after the #18, and for a while the A&A had two operational steam locomotives, with the #14 being the more popular among the two. The #14 was knocked out of service in 1988 and was found to need extensive work to make operational again, and the fairly hard-scrabble A&A has shoved it in the engine house and left it there since. Parts such as its headlamp and pilot have been taken for use on #18 over the years, and #18 had the #14's tender being swapped behind it, due to #18's tender having lower water capacity and a crack in the frame. The original #14 tender was then traded off in 2018 for one owned by the Oakland B&O museum, which had acquired a similar 2-8-0 locomotive from 1920 which had been mated with an oversize tender at some point in its history for static display, and A&A wanted the larger tender. They still have the #18's original tender, which theoretically could be repaired and returned to service, should they ever wish to put both the #14 and #18 in service, but I don't believe the funds are there.
Arcade & Attica has removed the Western New York & Pennsylvania lettering off of their RS-3u that they acquired this summer, as well as renumbering it and adding a unique A&A logo on the cab. According to A&A historians, that logo was used in the past on internal paperwork, but has never been applied to any structures, equipment or paperwork that the public saw. Kind of a neat little touch. I hope that eventually they paint over the yellow chevrons on the hoods and the yellow frame side with matching orange.
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