my ESPEE MODELERS ARCHIVE

California's Railroad to the U.S. 1861 - 1996

Southern Pacific GP9 1965 renumbering

335 units renumbered

From the Bob Finan collection :- 3611 in Half Widow paint. Part Black Widow part Scarlet and Gray...

In 1965, SP renumbered and reclassified the entire Rosters of the their three basically independent roads, (SP, SSW and TNO) into one Roster, and one classification system.

In the case of the GP9's, these were renumbered in roughly the order they were delivered in, starting at 3400 through to 3727, with the TNO and SSW GP9's added in where appropriate. Many received new numbers while still in Black Widow paint. Five units were written off before being renumbered.

Starting in 1970 with #3424 all existing GP9's were rebuilt into GP9E's and GP9R's with the number series beginning at #3300. Because of the internal differences of the three 'Phases', different 'rebuild' schemes were required, so they were placed into different number series. As well some got Farr air filter boxes behind the cab. The GP9E/R's will be more fully documented when I re-write the GP9E/R Info page...

see the SP GP9 Overview for Magazine/Book References and available models.