my ESPEE MODELERS ARCHIVE

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

Southern Pacific SD9 1965 renumbering

148 units renumbered

3800	3801	3802	3803	3804	3805	3806	3807	3808	3809
3810	3811	3812	3813	3814	3815	3816	3817	3818	3819
3820	3821	3822	3823	3824	3825	3826	3827	3828	3829
3830
3850	3851	3852	3853	3854	3855	3856	3857	3858	3859
3860	3861	3862	3863	3864	3865	3866	3867	3868	3869
3870	3871	3872	3873	3874	3875	3876	3877	3878	3879
3880	3881	3882	3883	3884	3885	3886	3887	3888	3889
3890	3891	3892	3893	3894	3895	3896	3897	3898	3899
3900	3901	3902	3903	3904	3905	3906	3907	3908	3909
3910	3911	3912	3913	3914	3915	3916	3917	3918	3919
3920	3921	3922	3923	3924	3925	3926	3927	3928	3929
3930	3931	3932	3933	3934	3935	3936	3937	3938	3939
3940	3941	3942	3943	3944	3945	3946	3947	3948	3949
3950	3951	3952	3953	3954	3955	3956	3957	3958	3959
3960	3961	3962	3963	3964	3965	3966
extras
3800	3800	3800	3822	3822	3926	3954	3891	3891

A Jim Hanrahan scan of a Gene McKinley slide.

3901 looks suspiciously like a former Black Widow unit, that has only had the short hood painted SP Lark Gray and Scarlet. Reason: that frame stripe is the same as for a Black Widow unit, and the carbody does look to be black... 3872 linked above also has been repainted into what seems to become known as a "Half Widow" scheme.

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 SD9's, these were renumbered in sequential order, less the units that had been vacated (wrecked/retired) prior to 1965.

All SD9's were renumbered starting at 3800, and continuing sequentially on all active units. Some got wrecked prior to 1965, and some were wrecked before getting their new number.

All were delivered in 4 color Black Widow paint, some repaints prior to the introduction of scarlet and gray, had a Black Widow paint scheme without the orange wings, 5459 as an example.

Starting around August 1970, the oldest and/or most weary SD9's were rebuilt as SD9E's.