This is meant to be a casual look at the wide variety of GP30 owners and the different paint schemes they have worn over the years. This is not an up to date list of how many GP30s are left.
The first GP30 was demonstrator 5629, which was built during July 1961. A second demonstrator, 5639, was built during March 1962. These were followed by 906 locomotives built for 29 railways, including 2 built by GMD for Canadian Pacific. Another 40 GP30B cabless locomotives were built for Union Pacific, bringing the total to 948. The Reading was the first Railroad to buy the GP30, followed by the D&RGW, CB&Q and the AT&SF. Lousiville and Nashville received the last GP30s built. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy ordered 5 GP30s which were delivered as GP35s, and Western Pacific ordered 10 high hood GP30s that also came as GP35s. There were several differences over the production run, and they are detailed in this roster by Robert Sarberenyi.
EMD Demonstrators
The first demonstrator, the 5629 was later renumbered 1962. Union Pacific purchased the unit and it became the 875. The second demonstrator was the 5639 and it became Seaboard Air Line 1343. EMD 5629 Photo
The GP30 was followed by the GP35, which suffered from poor electrical design. Production totals for the GP35 were 1307 for EMD and 26 for Canada (2 CN and 24 CP). The first GP35 was probably EMD 5652, which became UP 762. It is serial # 28319 on this website- http://www.trainweb.org/emdloco/serial.htm
Not being rude, but Dale, why do you post these outrageously long posts that nobody has the time to read? It is interesting, but I’m just saying!
Now about GP30s- I like how they look! I think they fit every paint scheme! I like their slug-like body and nose! They look sleek (spelling*). I especially like them in CSX’s “New Image” paint scheme!
About that Soo Line #700, I work with it and they just repainted it in May. The paint job is perfect and somehow, we got a Norfolk Southern firemans seat…
You’re welcome. I can’t say they are great looking locomotives, but they have character. The only ones I’ve seen are the two ex CPR units.
The Illinois Southern GP30 in “The Fugitive” is former N&W 536. Only the shell was used for a wreck filmed on the Great Smokey Mountains Railway during February 1993.
I’ve phtographed dozens of them (slides,sorry),and got to ride in the cab of a retired B&O GP30 through the Cumberland Narrows. The 30’s have a brutish look that make them stand out. We still have GP30’s (now road slugs) still running around on the CSX system.
I know they were here while I was in Winnipeg (1988-1990), but I can’t remember seeing them here after I got back here in August 1990. I think all of my pictures of them are from south Burnaby and New Westminister. They spent a lot of time avoiding me.
BNSF HAS MANY GP-30"S STILL RUNNING,LOCAL IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HAVE SOME MIXED IN WITH GP-35’S. IF YOU WANT TO SEE SOME,VICTORVILLE AND SAN BERNARDINO STILL HAVE SOME RUNNING,MOST ARE X-SANTA FE.
Several BNSF, ex-ATSF GP30s remain in local service in southern California. Last November, I photographed two of them on a local (with a real ATSF-painted caboose on the rear end!!!) passing the Amtrak/Metrolink depot in Fullerton. It’s nice to see classic rolling stock still in service alongside the bilevel coaches, doublestacks and widecab locomotives that dominate trains through this hot spot.
Sorry, I forgot to mention several other recent GP30 sightings. I spotted two Palouse & Coulee City GP30s just last March while on a business trip to eastern Washington. One of them, still in P&CC red and black, was on a grain train coming off the Walla Walla line at the UP junction at Wallula, southeast of Pasco.
The other, painted in an overall yellow scheme, was parked at the P&CC, ex-Blue Mountain RR yard in Walla Walla, and lettered as a Remote Control Platform unit.
Puget Sound & Pacific #3005 was parked at UP’s ex-SP Brooklyn (Portland, Ore.) Yard Just yesterday (June 17), among the wide range of other classic rolling stock owned by the preservation groups that use the old roundhouse there.
It was apparently waiting movement out after receiving some repairs by Doyle McCormack’s shop crews. The local railfan grapevine reported that the Portland & Western had leased it to help handle an upsurge of traffic.
Incidentally, the P&W is also currently leasing an ex-Amtrak SDP40F/ATSF SDf40-2, (Amtrak #644), the same one that BNSF painted in Maersk Sealand colors (which it still wears). This unit is one of the privately-owned locomotives that calls Brooklyn home.
Southern GP30s 2526 and 2641 were rebuilt in 12/65 as GP35s. This was done on account of wreck damage. Source of data A J Kristopans EMD Serial Number Page.
It would be nice if the researchers and sound recorders for LIONEL traveled to Duluth to take photos and record sounds so they make a totally accurate version of Soo Line #700. They already make the EMD GP30 and the ALCo FA-2 Trucks. The people working at Lionel need to make sure the rest of the details are right. It is great to know that a GP30 has been fully restored.
