Union Pacific SD7s

Classic Trains General Discussion
1

Hey everybody…

This is my first post on these forums. I’m in the process of creating a virtual model of a Union Pacific SD7 for Microsoft Train Simulator. These were relatively rare beasts, as the UP only purchased ten SD7s, so photos of them are hard to come across. Most of the photos I’ve been able to locate were taken in the mid 1970s. I’m specifically interested in what these locos looked like at delivery, especially the following details:

  • Were the trucks painted silver or grey?

  • What slogan, if any, was applied to the cab side? I suspect that it was probably the “Road of The Streamliners” script, but haven’t seen photographic evidence to back that up.

  • All of the photos I’ve seen include a rotating beacon on the top of the cab, but I doubt they were installed until much later. I’ve seen some photos that seem to indicate a Mars light was installed over the headlight (at least on the long end), and others that show a standard, twin-beam headlight.

If anyone can shed light on these details, I’d be very interested to learn.

2

On page 231 of William Kratvilles book Motive Power of the Union Pacific shows a photo of a SD7 with road of the streamliners on the cad. This photo also shows a high mounted headlight with a Mars light above the headlight. Hope this helps Larry The number of the unit is 780

3

That is helpful… one final question… does the picture in question show whether both ends had the Mars light, or just the forward (long) end?

I’ll post some links to some pictures of the model once I get more done.

4

Diesel Era did an article on the UP SD7s with multiple photos, you might look it up in the magazine database here at Trains.com to find out what issue. There is also a Diesel Era article on SD7s that will have as built photos of all SD7s.

5

The only photo That I saw only showed the long end with the mars light on the long end Larry