I really LOVED the 7’s and 9’s growing up. Especially on the Southern.

One of My favorites. Miss seeing them.

The Conway Scenic Railroad still has a GP 7 in operation on the Valley and Sawyer River trips, love the sound!

The First GP7 ever made is CNW 1518, Built in October 1949

There is a former Illinois Central GP7 that now resides at Alamo Junction in Elemendorf Texas with Rail Logix,it is leased from CEFX as 8047,before hand it was with NREX. It was rebuilt as a GP10 back in 1957 with a chopped nose,as a matter of fact it still has it's "Frog Light" on the tip of the nose it's had since then,even when it was still having a high hood.Unfortunately it hasn't ran in quite some time but it is going through a rebuild and repaint soon.It broke a piston rod inside one of the cylinders and it use to spew motor oil through the exhaust manifolds,and that's why it had stains on the fuel tanks until it was washed.It's going to be sent to Baytown Texas where a SD38-2 is that use to be with Alamo Junction a long time ago,the only other locomotives at Alamo Junction besides the GP10 are the two GP38-2's they own.

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

That’s cool

This train of my favorite because of its unique shape

Since I work for FEC, its nice to see the 7 in our colors. Great video, thanks for sharing information 👍

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

That’s dope!

I'm glad you did this on the GP7. I got to looking at my Walthers model and compared it to Athearn's bluebox version. Damn, I was very disappointed to see that Walthers got the GP9M right while Athearn got it wrong. Athearn says it's a GP9, but all the details on their shells indicate that its the GP7. Athearn kept producing those incorrect designations for decades. Thank you for helping me see the difference.

@burleyscott2910

7 ай бұрын

@@chromolyelixirsociety6672 I think the wide shell is because the motors in them are wider than today's models. I think shells are for like SD9, SD45, SDP ( or something like that).

I have plenty of them in New York Central and Pennsylvania railroad I love them

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

?

My first Dcc sound was that f unit #306, inter mountain with the B unit, super old but man I can’t wait for when my layout to be completed enough to run it as a foreign power unit

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

An odd but cool coincidence

Besides WP 705 there are 3 more GP7's in Portola. The 707, 708 and 712. Portola is home to 2 WP GP9's also and the first GP20.

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

Cool. That lil nugget of information might come in handy later.

Santa Fe sure did love their Geeps.

You do a great job on these videos👍🏼. I hope you eventually do one on the SD45 and SD80MAC, love the 20 cylinder EMD’s💪🏼🇺🇸

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

Funny you mentioned that. Originally I was gonna cover the MAC but info was hard to find or something. Thanks and if you have any questions theirs a q’n’a video on the way

As a retired engineer I loved EMD locomotives, sadly I never got the oppertunity to run a GP7 or GP9, I mostly ran GP38's and 40's and a couple GP30 and GP 30 slug sets, they always gave everything they had and were for the most part dependable even though they were not maintained very well.

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

That’s really cool! What was it like being one? I’ve always wondered since I’ve wanted to be an engineer for 15 years.

@stevenspaziani9159

2 жыл бұрын

For me it was the best job ever, my dad was an Engineer for the NYC and PC. Most young Engineers start out as trainmen and or conductors now and can work their way to becoming an engineer usually within a couple years. I put in my 2 years as a conductor and 28 in the seat with an occasional stint as a conductor due to seniority, but usually only a couple weeks till an Engineer spot opened up. First thing you'll do is go to Engineer school and you'll have to pass with flying colors or you could lose your job ( at least that's how it was for me back in the CR days ). After school you'll spend another 6 months or so training as an engineer under the watchful eyes of seasoned engineers, and if you get good ones they will give you tips and tricks of the trade that has been passed down to them over their career. You'll have to get qualified on the different territories you'll be running on, you'll have to know the ups and downs of the territories to keep from speeding or stalling on a hill, you'll get to know where all the crossings are to know when to blow the horn, when to use throttle, or the brakes whether it be train or dynamic brakes. it can take a couple years before you become really comfortable in the seat. After a while you do get comfortable hauling thousands of pounds of freight and running a train can be more like a Sunday drive always knowing in the back of your head you have to be on he ball and be ready for any emergency any time. For me it was a rewarding career and I might have stuck around another couple years if it hadn't been for the implementation of (PTC), it has it's good points and bad, but when my time came I went, I miss running trains and the people I worked with, but now it's on to bigger and better things.

Low nose geeps don't begin as production models until 1959 when SP order 20 units with low noses . In addition the first gp-7 is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union ' Illinois

You can still find a GP 7 in Kingfisher OK, it only works as a switcher now, but is still operational. It’s one of the low nose variants.

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

Very interesting. Maybe it’s owned by like a class 3 regional system or something. Or a lease unit.

@Southern_Plains_Railfan

2 жыл бұрын

@@ironhorsehistorian9871 I’m pretty sure it’s a lease unit, but it’s been there for years.

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

Did it have any white lettering they said FURX or anything like that, or was it too far away for u to see?

@Southern_Plains_Railfan

2 жыл бұрын

@@ironhorsehistorian9871 The engine is #105 and it it’s an ex Rail America unit, but started off as MKT 1515. It’s currently owned by Mid Oklahoma Cooperative. So, not a lease unit.

I wonder if they ment they came with a wabco E2 stock from the factory if you didn't tell them what horn you wanted, because besides NYC and a few other railroads, most had M series and S series 3 and 5 chimes

I have a HO scale of a GP7U low hood!

The US Army ordered GP7's with the same trucks as the NW2 switch engines. EMD actually had switcher trucks in the catalog as an option...

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

Cool little nugget of info

@Slim_Slid

2 жыл бұрын

In Runaway Train,the two GP7's that were behind the F7A were also former USAX units that the Alaskan Railroad purchased,they acquired tons of former military locomotives through their phases.The trucks on them were a very uncomfortable ride at high speeds,but obviously the Army never does that and they were purposely in use for switching,the trucks were changed to modern standards once GP7's were being gone through rebuilds.The locomotive itself on Eastbound 12 during the movie was also a USAX unit,it was a Alco MMRS-1 that was rebuilt with a EMD prime mover later on.Yes that's a real thing,when Alco went out of business because of General Electric,purchasing parts and accessing resources were becoming hard,so they sent alot of Alcos to Illinois to be retrofitted with EMD two strokes,the MKT was also known for doing this,look at some of the RS3's they owned,the cab and nose was still on but the long hood was replaced with the body of a GP38 to fit the engines.The Army themselves sent alot of their Alcos or General Electric switchers to Illinois to either receive engine rebuilds,control stand updates,or prime mover swaps. The Army still use GP7's,but they're no longer black and are now painted in red and yellow,almost like the MKT paint scheme,and all have been rebuilt into GP10's with chopped noses. Recently it has now become mandatory that if any GP10's have to go through a overhaul,they will be converted into Gensets,which is damn sad. Some GP10's have been decommissioned and are in the hands of some shortlines,so there's that.

Would have liked to have heard something about the options for configuration of the control stand(s) for operating in each direction.

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

An interesting idea, but that’s a bit beyond me

Do you have plans to make an episode for the GP8 and 9s soon?

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

all in good time my son :)

Are there any cosmetic differences between a GP7 and a GP9? The SD50 and SD60 looked the same, also.

Ah Yes, the T34 of locomotives

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

Cool analogy lol

Can anyone tell me when the Gp7's got the all weather windows please ?

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

?

What about the CNJ gp7

Music is distracting, otherwise good

What's the purpose of the high nose? Is it equipment? A bathroom?

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

I’m afraid that question is beyond me

@johnbiggers7909

2 жыл бұрын

The passenger gp7 and gp9 had a steam generator in the short high hood for heat in passenger cars.

@ironhorsehistorian9871

2 жыл бұрын

Cool lil bit of info