USA Trains Rio Grande GP-9 locomotive The USA Trains Rio Grande GP-9 locomotive has to be the most accurate Rio Grande model that USA Trains made. USA Trains painted them in the as delivered original black bumble bee paint scheme. Lateron all of the Rio Grande GP-9 locomotives were repainted in the orange and black paint scheme with the small Rio Grande herald. The reason was because the switch towers were getting the GP-9 locomotives confused with the switch locomotives. The only pictures of the Rio Grande GP-9 in the as delivered paint scheme were in black and white, I could not find any color pictures during my research. The SD-9 was also painted originally in the same paint schemes. The first release USA Trains GP-9 Rio Grande locomotives were road number 5953 and 5954. The first release USA Trains GP-9 locomotives did not have constant voltage lighting. The second release USA Trains GP-9 Rio Grande locomotives were road number #5955,#5956 and, #5957. For modeling the real thing, Rio Grande never had those road numbers for the GP-9 locomotives, the road numbers went from #5901 to #5954. The second release road numbers of GP-9 locomotives did get the constant lighting upgrade to them. USA Trains finally noticed they made a mistake in the Rio Grande Road numbers for the GP-9 locomotive. So the third release was road number 5901. The Rio Grande real prototype locomotive #5953 was bought new in 1956 and was sold to National Rail Corporation in 1991.
