I once read that older Union Pacific units that were coming up for retirement were renumbered and put in the 9000 series. Is this still true if not was this ever true?
Various older SD’s (mostly ex-MP) were parked in the 8800-8900 and 9900 series in part to clear out the 4000 series for the SD70M’s.
Various older SD’s (mostly ex-MP) were parked in the 8800-8900 and 9900 series in part to clear out the 4000 series for the SD70M’s.
Not exactly. What UP has done is renumber classes of locomotives due for retirement into the odd spaces in the number series to clear out blocks of numbers so that new locomotives of the same model can be numbered in a consecutive series. As it happens that was a lot of gaps in the 9000 series into which the odd lots of locotives could be renumbered. None of the blocks were large enough for the new locomotives. There are several hundred fairly new GE locomotives in the 9000 series that are not up for retirement.