SP 8299
January 11th, 2002, 08:07 PM
Recently heard that the California State Railroad Museum has just received a locomotive donation from UP, in the form of SP SD45T-2R 6819. This unit, originally built as SP 9193 by EMD in March 1972, was rebuilt at SP's Sacramento Locomotive Works under the GRIP II Program in August 1987, where it received a complete upgrade, new designation, and new road number. Unfortunatley, Espee had just revised its light policy at the time, and it was outshopped without the distinctive Gyralite warning light package. I was surprised to hear about this donation; UP had gone on the record in the past couple years stating that it wasn't interested in donations of locomotives to museums or other groups. Regardless, it's great to see one of Espee's landmark locomotives get saved; along with the Cab-Forwards, Espee was known for the T-2's. http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/sd45t-2r_photos/6819_sp-sd45t-2r-art_fisher.jpg