I heard the train blow for a crossing a mile or so away as I was getting in my car to leave for work. I decided to stop at the park by the tracks to take some shots of it before work. The normal power was on point, IORY SD40-2 #4085, then NREX 5678 (ex CP SD40-2), Rail America unit, and IORY GP40-3 #4036. I don't normally see more than 4 units around here so when a 5th loco passed by it took me by surprise and I didn't catch a picture of it except for this as I was shooting the IORY 4036 on the fly. It was freshly painted black and silver, 4 axle, looked very much like and Alco but I am not good at diesel spotting so I don't know for sure. I caught N**X out of the corner of my eye as it went by. It rounded the corner before I could get another shot off. I need a newer, faster camera for this. I am pretty sure it had a round cab roof and I remember three lights mounted on top of the cab arranged short of like the picture in the link below. Nipsco SE-1 I have dug through picture archives all night and I can't find anything with the louver and grille arangement seen in the picture...Any hints?
Looks like the back end of a GP7 or GP9 with the location of the louvers and the hand rail styles, but the catch is, it has 5 steps instead of 4. Those geeps had round cab roofs, the three lights probably indicate remote control capabilities.
Too add more confusion to the mystery...here is a blow up of another shot where you can see the roofline of the cab and longhood. I guess I was mistaken, round roof it is not. I assume it is one of the Rail America related lines and it may have been in transit because I have seen 2 more trains run through since and the first 3 loco's from that day's consist are still being used, the 4036 and the mystery are not.
Something from the PAcific Harbor Line? Only RR I can think of right now with black/white striped side sills.
Another night of digging through railfan picture sites and the only thing I have found with the same louver, grille and step arrangement is a GP5. ILSX 1360 I am guessing these were rebuilt from GP9's but they have the different 5 step arrangement from all the other GP9 rebuilds that I looked at. The others have 4 steps and different handrail arrangements.
Actually, GP5s were rebuilds to GP9s. They were built only for GN in 1958-59, essentially GP9s with trade-in FT engines and other components, so they have only 1350 hp. I've heard them called FT rebuilds, but that's a bit of an exaggeration. FTs had unusually short wheelbases and GP5s don't, so it's clearly a new frame.
