Ok, now you have been reading the title, and think, “why is this locomotive notable (or important) to you?”. This is a new series of posts that I will be titling as “obscure history on the rails”. Starting things off with UPY 111.
This “locomotive” or “slug”, because it has no fuel tanks, is considered notable to me as it was known to be involved in a clerical error. Allow me to explain.
This “Gray Ghost” was originally built as Southern Pacific (SP) 7877 in May 1979, by General Electric (GE), as a model B30-7, SP Class GF430-3. It was retired by UP on November 30, 2002, and was rebuilt to a CCRCL on August 15, 2003, and was in service as a “Gray Ghost” until its retirement.
This is where things get a little weird, an error was made on December 21, 2020, stating that the “Gray Ghost” was retired on that day, when in reality, it was out of service and stored. This “Gray Ghost” would return to service on February 19, 2022, until being actually retired on February 6, 2024.
It was last photographed in storage at St. Louis, Missouri, and its current whereabouts are unknown.
That’s about it.
-LB&SCR E2