I saw a picture a while ago of a Alco RS or RSD that had its short hood removed for better visibility in yard service, it was a PC unit, anyways I mentioned it to guy at the club a while back and I said how it’d be cool to see something like that on a EMD unit, he said that such a unit did exist I don’t recall the model or railroad, he didn’t have a picture of it, I’ve tried a few Google searches and no luck.
Anybody out there heard of a EMD locomotive that had its short hood removed for switcher service?
(Disclaimer: this is not another one of my “new flavor of the week” questions, I’m just curious if such a unit existed.)
I think he’s talking about the entire nose being removed. I think most such modifications were done by new industrial owners after they were sold off by the railroads. ADM has some GP7/9 models where the entire nose is gone.
The D&RGW had an SD9 that got a chopped nose IIRC due to an accident and it was used as a yard switcher in Grande Junction Colorado for a number of years.
Every so often I go to Google maps and look for train yards. When I find one, I find the closest road and go to street view and I get to look at the yard. Some have good views and some don’t. A couple of weeks ago, I was looking at a NS locomotive facility in Pennsylvania (can’t remember where) and it had some Geeps at the facility with the noses removed. I thought that was kind of odd.
I cannot speak for every EMD unit, but I am fairly certain that removing the short hood from a GP7 or GP9 would require a tremendous amount ot rework. There is equipment up there.
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I had a tiny bit of experience with old GP9s on the Seminole Gulf Railway in the early 1990s… TINY BIT.
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During a major repower/overhaul/conversion/rebuild it could happen, but it is not simply a matter of Fred the Engineer saying “I can’t see well”, and then Bill the Welder shows up with a cutting torch and says “I will fix that for you”.
Yes. In Vernon Tx there are two Geeps that switch a couple of grain elevators. They are a GP7 and GP10 in one of the best railroad paint schemes I have ever seen. Also they are both named, which is something you don’t very see often.