Greg Elems
April 30th, 2003, 11:34 AM
The story on the WP GP30's comes from my book "Western Pacific's Diesel Years" by Joseph A. Strapac. It isn't verbatim, but simply put, the rest of the story.
In late 1963 WP attempted to order 10 GP30's. The order was for them to follow their practice of high nose and Pyle-National headlights and would have looked like the Norfolk and Western and Southern railway units. The headlights were commonly referred to as garbage can lights. Anyway the order for them was placed low on the delivery schedule that EMD felt they wouldn't be in production by then. WP was informed that the GP35's would be supplied instead and that would put WP first on the GP35 production schedule. The option of low nose and dual control stands along with the Pyle-National headlights were selected by WP. The paint scheme stayed the same, silver and orange Zephyr style. The same paint scheme would carry onto the GP40's.
So now you know the rest of the story.
Greg Elems
In late 1963 WP attempted to order 10 GP30's. The order was for them to follow their practice of high nose and Pyle-National headlights and would have looked like the Norfolk and Western and Southern railway units. The headlights were commonly referred to as garbage can lights. Anyway the order for them was placed low on the delivery schedule that EMD felt they wouldn't be in production by then. WP was informed that the GP35's would be supplied instead and that would put WP first on the GP35 production schedule. The option of low nose and dual control stands along with the Pyle-National headlights were selected by WP. The paint scheme stayed the same, silver and orange Zephyr style. The same paint scheme would carry onto the GP40's.
So now you know the rest of the story.
Greg Elems