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Post by Chad on Sept 18, 2015 17:55:11 GMT -8
Question, Did Union Pacific ever run GP9's in an A-B-B-A set?
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Post by edwardsutorik on Sept 18, 2015 17:58:08 GMT -8
Yes.
Ed
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Post by Great-Northern-Willmar Div on Sept 19, 2015 4:39:37 GMT -8
Depends on era
UP mixed up its freight power most of the time.
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Post by atsfan on Sept 19, 2015 5:43:01 GMT -8
Question, Did Union Pacific ever run GP9's in an A-B-B-A set? In the 1950s this absolutely happened. Over time all railroads ending up mixing and matching more though. |
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Post by grahamline on Sept 19, 2015 8:08:16 GMT -8
They ran GP7, 9, 20 and 30 units in every combination imaginable. Search for "Butte Special" for some interesting lineups including B-units and passenger Geeps.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2015 11:27:33 GMT -8
Question, Did Union Pacific ever run GP9's in an A-B-B-A set? Not that the UP ever set out to run "matched A-B-B-A sets" of power, but if you look around you'll find photos of almost every combination of GP9A & B , GP30A & B and SD24A & B and other power from two to eight or more units. So yes. |
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Post by Spikre on Sept 19, 2015 11:39:24 GMT -8
 a U.P. Publicty photo from 1954 shows a New set of A-B-B-A GP9s on that famous curve in Utah that U.P. used a lot. the GP9s were Early GP9s and had GP7 type handrail stantions. that sometimes gets them classed as GP7s in captions,but they are GP9s. Spikre 
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Post by edwardsutorik on Sept 19, 2015 12:10:16 GMT -8
I believe UP DID "set out to run" ABBA sets. Not matched as to numbers, but in sets. These locos were built in 1954. During the fifties, UP ran their freight diesels mostly in sets. If you do a search on Railpictures.net for up in the '50's, you get a lot of pictures of steam locomotives. IGNORE those filthy obsolete beasts! Note that there are 5 shots of diesels in freight service. Four of them are sets. There is no reason that idea would stop with the delivery of these GP's.
Later, though, that's what happened. And not much later. I would think the downfall of matched sets happened when the SD24's arrived in '59, the GP20's in '60, the GP30's in '63, and the GP35's in '64. When you've got such a variety of locos, how are you EVER going to run matched sets. But it still happened. You can find shots of a DD35 ABB. And an ABB set of F's. On Railpictures.net for UP up until 1966, or so, you'll find plenty of matched sets.
I would be (and will be, after I visit my local) comfortable running an ABBA set of Athearn UP GP's from about 1956 to 1962. The latter a pretty rough guess. I could push it to '65. Maybe.
Ed
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Post by edwardsutorik on Sept 19, 2015 12:13:46 GMT -8
Oh, yeah. The UP GP9's were delivered with grey trucks. So the Athearn models are not "as-delivered". Maybe someday. Or you can sacrifice a current set with an airbrush. Not happening here, though.
Ed
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2015 12:25:13 GMT -8
I believe UP DID "set out to run" ABBA sets. Not matched as to numbers, but in sets. These locos were built in 1954. During the fifties, UP ran their freight diesels mostly in sets. If you do a search on Railpictures.net for up in the '50's, you get a lot of pictures of steam locomotives. IGNORE those filthy obsolete beasts! Note that there are 5 shots of diesels in freight service. Four of them are sets. There is no reason that idea would stop with the delivery of these GP's. Later, though, that's what happened. And not much later. I would think the downfall of matched sets happened when the SD24's arrived in '59, the GP20's in '60, the GP30's in '63, and the GP35's in '64. When you've got such a variety of locos, how are you EVER going to run matched sets. But it still happened. You can find shots of a DD35 ABB. And an ABB set of F's. On Railpictures.net for UP up until 1966, or so, you'll find plenty of matched sets. I would be (and will be, after I visit my local) comfortable running an ABBA set of Athearn UP GP's from about 1956 to 1962. The latter a pretty rough guess. I could push it to '65. Maybe. Ed You are right about the GP9 sets in the early years. |
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Post by edwardsutorik on Sept 20, 2015 14:33:14 GMT -8
Correction:
Since the new Athearn GP's are lettered "Dependable Transportation", they are no earlier than the introduction of that slogan: June 1959. On delivery in 1954, they had grey trucks and the Streamliners/All the West slogan. Maybe someday.......
Ed
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Post by theengineshed on Sept 20, 2015 15:39:16 GMT -8
That kills it for me. I have a Veranda turbine that needs some help tractionwise, and was thinking a GP9B would be a perfect mate. But was thinking more towards the 1954 introduction date of both...
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Post by riogrande on Sept 20, 2015 15:48:28 GMT -8
Oh, yeah. The UP GP9's were delivered with grey trucks. So the Athearn models are not "as-delivered". Maybe someday. Or you can sacrifice a current set with an airbrush. Not happening here, though. Ed Companies used to always do "as delivered" first - times have changed. I wonder if they are producing what they think will be most popular or sell best. The D&RGW ran their GP7's and GP9's in sets of four when first delivered sort of like the F units, although of course they were all like units in the sets. There is a photo in RGD Vol 1 of one of those four unit Geep sets. |
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Post by edwardsutorik on Sept 20, 2015 16:17:38 GMT -8
This batch of UP GP's is a bit more "useful" than the as-delivered would be. It's good from 1959-ish to 1972-ish, far longer than the delivery scheme. Plus, you can run these mixed with SD24's and U50's and.............
Running them as ABBA sets is still possible (I know I will) but was surely a lot rarer than in early times.
I'm still in for an early set, when that happy day occurs.
Ed
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Post by Chad on Sept 20, 2015 16:39:00 GMT -8
Thanks for the info everyone. I am toying with the idea of getting an ABBA set just for fun. Not sure why, I model SP and BN in Northern California/Oregon. Not sure UP GP's would look good running among pine trees. But I think they still would look good running as a set.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Sept 20, 2015 16:55:12 GMT -8
Not sure UP GP's would look good running among pine trees. Good question!:  Nope. Pretty awful. Just doesn't work. Though that green loco helps a little. Ed |
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Post by Chad on Sept 20, 2015 17:26:52 GMT -8
Great picture Ed, you got me. Well I guess that pretty much closes the sale. Thanks
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Post by espeenut on Sept 20, 2015 18:46:21 GMT -8
...I bought a pair of the Genesis UP GP9B's that will be operating between or behind a pair of UP SD45's or SD40's or SD40-2's - all Kato units, lots of pictures to prove it was done so no problems there. I just think 'B' units are cool, I also have a couple BNSF GP60B's in H1 that I run behind my BNSF Dash 9's in H1, makes a nice looking consist which is also prototypical...
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Post by edwardsutorik on Sept 20, 2015 20:31:17 GMT -8
...I bought a pair of the Genesis UP GP9B's...I just think 'B' units are cool... SD24B. Yeah, they'll NEVER sell. Right again, Atlas. Ed |
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Post by espeenut on Sept 20, 2015 22:02:35 GMT -8
...yeah Ed, that's what I told them when I saw them too, but all they did was look back at me and not say anything. Fortunately the 9B's can be run with pretty well anything that UP ran at the time - including U50's, DD35's and 40's, and commonly with SD45's, I've even got shots with them hooked up to F units...
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Post by Spikre on Sept 21, 2015 10:43:07 GMT -8
 originally the "Little Blow" Turbines ran alone. later they got the large Fuel tanks,the Veranda units may have come from GE with Fuel Tanks ? think it was the later 50s that U.P. started adding Diesels behind the Turbines,and then that became standard with the "Big Blows" also. Spikre
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Post by edwardsutorik on Sept 21, 2015 11:51:54 GMT -8
Both the Baby and the Veranda Turbines were delivered without tenders.
Ed
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Post by jaygee on Sept 21, 2015 13:34:14 GMT -8
First Turbine to get a tender was #61 with the 24C tank from #806. Of course it was modified, and would receive even more mods later on...with insulation and revised ladders / railings. The cylindrical tanks were two vandies spliced together on a common frame. The six axle 23C tanks were from early Challengers, and were not insulated like the 24Cs. All the GTEL 8500s except 1,3,5,15, and 24 got full Diesel M.U. capability. Not sure which of the little sisters got the treatment.
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Post by lvrr325 on Sept 21, 2015 16:46:19 GMT -8
Old railroad calendar downstairs I looked through again the other day has a color shot on the UP with an F9A, F3B, GP30 and GP9B leading a train.
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Post by ns2557 on Sept 21, 2015 17:16:36 GMT -8
The turbines that did get mu capabilities were often run with gp9's in the event of an online failure they could provide the power to move the train into the siding and not foul the main line.
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Post by theengineshed on Sept 22, 2015 13:48:58 GMT -8
originally the "Little Blow" Turbines ran alone. later they got the large Fuel tanks,the Veranda units may have come from GE with Fuel Tanks ? think it was the later 50s that U.P. started adding Diesels behind the Turbines,and then that became standard with the "Big Blows" also. Spikre September 1955. No GP9Bs, but there is no reason that one couldn't be in the consist. Still tempted, might just backdate one, eliminate the Dependable Transportation and add the Streamliners slogan... The caption states that the diesels are helpers, so that would make me suspect no MU and a second engineer?  |
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Post by theengineshed on Sept 22, 2015 14:26:55 GMT -8
First Turbine to get a tender was #61 with the 24C tank from #806. Of course it was modified, and would receive even more mods later on...with insulation and revised ladders / railings. The cylindrical tanks were two vandies spliced together on a common frame. The six axle 23C tanks were from early Challengers, and were not insulated like the 24Cs. All the GTEL 8500s except 1,3,5,15, and 24 got full Diesel M.U. capability. Not sure which of the little sisters got the treatment. Of course the one Veranda that Athearn offered without the tender was 61. And wikipedia suggests that this locomotive was used to test GTEL MU capability with diesels in 1958. So the shot with 52 posted above would suggest that it isn't MU'ed with the diesels, or the date is incorrect, or wikipedia is incorrect. Since tenders were added in 1955 to the first unit, presumably 61, a tenderless 61 MU'ed with diesels, much less GP9Bs, is a non-starter... |
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Post by Spikre on Sept 23, 2015 10:19:52 GMT -8
?? isn't the 1st unit behind the Turbine a GP7 ? thought All U.P. GP9s were built with Dynamic brakes ? that is a Great Shot !! Spikre |
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Post by grahamline on Sept 23, 2015 10:46:29 GMT -8
UP 205-244 were delivered in 1954 and were ordered without dynamic brakes. Most photos show them in yard and transfer service in Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. They left the roster in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The UP GP7 units were numbered 100-129 and all had dynamics.
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Post by Spikre on Sept 23, 2015 11:02:14 GMT -8
OOOOPPS !! grahamline, thanks for that info. the GP7 Stantions thru me off !! Spikre |
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