hello all: I stumbled upon a pic from 1998 on the http://espee.railfan.net/sswb40-8.html site. I thought there were no more SSW locos left in SSW paint. Also it mentions a 1990 order of GP60s in SSW colors & SP colors, I thought UP bought all these rr in the 80s or 70s? Is UP preserving these rr by keeping the original paint or is that too optimistic? Or do you think that UP has yet to paint them in yellow & grey? I stumbled upon all of this because Atlas supposed to be coming out w/a B40-8 in SSW colors--8087 & 8076. thanks for any info. it is greatly appreciated because i model SSW and if the Athearn GP60 is correct and the Atlas one is coming out then those are two that will be added to the roster, because I only model the prototype SSW, not a what if, in other words, I do not believe they would release a SSW SD90MAC-h because SSW never had one.
All those models are "correct"... Well sorta of. The Athearn GP60 doesn't really match a real one, but Cotton Belt had GP60s and B40s. I'm pretty sure only a small number of B40-8s have been repainted. Until then you get the ugly patch jobs as on this page- http://espee.railfan.net/spb39-8.html UP has no intentions of preserving any SP or DRGW paint jobs. SP was bought by DRGW in the 80s and then went into the UP system a few years ago.
Dear Tunnel: I didn't think that SSW had GP60s, it was not mentioned in the COTTON BELT LOCOMOTIVE book by Strapac. But at the ESPEE site it showed pix of them. But as it turns out they were, are, "patch" jobs. Thank you for the info. jai [This message has been edited by jaijef (edited 18 January 2001).]
Check out this link... http://espee.railfan.net/sswgp60.html I'm not sure when your reference was published but perhaps it was before they were delivered. The SP had 6 orders but 3 went to Cotton Belt. How can those not be SSW units?
Strapac's Cotton Belt Locomotives was published before the delivery of the GP60s. When this book was reissued it was not brought up to date. Cotton Belt GP60s: 1988 #9620-9634 1989 #9635-9664 1990 #9665-9714 1991 #9715-9769 This list shows Cotton Belt's ability to finance new locomotive purchases. Will check to see if any of the last group of GP60s were Cotton Belt's. This would be the #9770-9794 group delivered in 1993-1994. ------------------ Cotton Belt: Runs like a Blue Streak
These locomotives were delivered in Cotton Belt lettering after Strapac's book Cotton Belt Locomotives was published in 1977. The previous post details the GP60s. 1978 SD40T-2 #8322-8326 RCT; 8372-8376 RCR 1979 GP40-2 #7628-7657 1980 B30-7 #7774-7799 B36-7 #7770-7773 1984 GP40-2 #7248-7273 1988 B40-8 #8040-8074 1989 B40-8 #8075-8094 I will check into post 1991 deliverys and report later. ------------------ Cotton Belt: Runs like a Blue Streak
thanks for the info everyone. Someone mentioned that the Athearn Gp60s were not real, but the number fit proto, so they must be real. SSW9389--when you mention CB as getting more financing, does that mean that they are still around and not a fallen flag? It sounds like it. Of course I confused slightly because I thought they merged w/SP a long time ago.
To err is human. The Cotton Belt GP60s ended at 9714, not 9769. The GP60s after 9714 were all Espee. There is another group of Cotton Belt diesels after the 9714. These are the 20 GP40M-2s built as #7274-7293. The units were built between November 1990 and January 1991 by Morrison-Knudsen. These units were evidentily the last delivered in full COTTON BELT lettering. What I meant by getting financing is that the Cotton Belt was able to purchase more than their share of Espee's locomotive fleet. The St. Louis Southwestern's stock was purchased in large blocks by the Espee so that by 1930 that railroad had control of Cotton Belt. The SSW was still a seperate corporation, but controlled by Espee. This control became very tightly managed in about 1968 with the appointment of Rob Krebs as a Superintendent on the Cotton Belt. Krebs was a Californian and an Espee man. Cotton Belt's ability to pay its bills kept its credit clean. The road bought 84 SD45T-2s with nary a tunnel in sight. These units were more likely to be found in the mountains of California, than in the cotton fields back home. Equipment financing through the Cotton Belt helped out Espee in a large way when it struggled with the same during the late '80s. ------------------ Cotton Belt: Runs like a Blue Streak
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SPF: I am told UP has painted all of the Cotton Belt B40s and only has a few of the B39s in SP paint.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yep...all of the SSW B40-8's are yellow, and there is only one SP B39-8E left, 8013. At the time of the takeover, the B39/40 fleet was due for heavy shop work, which explains why they got repainted so quickly. As for modeling with the Atlas B40-8, it's supposed to come with the thicker front anticlimber common with later GE production, which would make it accurate for units SSW 8075-8094. Earlier SSW B40-8's 8040-8074, and SP B39-8E's 8000-8039 had thinner anticlimbers; this should be fairly simple to model with styrene sheet, if one desires. Paul #3 ------------------ Have A Nice Day!
For those interested in the corporate history of SSW, my website contains a "family tree" of Union Pacific that has info on SSW. The http for the UP part of the site is listed below. The tree has brief historical information on each railroad that ended up as part of the UP empire, including founding date of SSW, acquisition of part of Rock Island by SSW, controlling interest stock acquistion of SSW by SP in 1932, acquisition of SP by Rio Grande, and acquisition of SP by UP. SSW ceased to be a separate corporate entity in 1996 when SP was merged into UP. http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/5247/rrtree/page3.html [This message has been edited by crash219 (edited 26 January 2001).]
When I posted the link for the UP family tree link, I should have mentioned that if anyone needs to access it in the future, the link will soon be changed to: http://www.geocities.com/crash219_98/rrtree/page3.html As far as I know, that link will work now. [This message has been edited by crash219 (edited 01 February 2001).]
thank you for the UP family tress, I have wondered which lines comprised the UPRR. this is very helpful. jai
