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SD45 No. 5315, westbound at East Portal in Spring 1968. She is the
lowest-numbered SD45. |
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SD45 No. 5321, eastbound out of the Moffat Tunnel during Spring 1968. She
is slightly over one year old in this photo. |
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SD50 No. 5502. Sometime around 1995, this Grande unit leads an Espee piggyback train on the Tehachapi loop, CA. Notice the extremely grimy appearance. The SD50s spent much of the SP era working the hills in southern California.
(Clarence Dent photo)
The 5502 was patched to UP5096 on 7/27/01, and
renumbered UP9846 (6/11/02).
Here
she is, in a grab shot as she races through Deming, NM on a rainy September
3, 2006. Not many units left showing any Rio Grande paint in 2006, so
this was a nice surprise. |
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 Four views of
SD50 No. 5503, taken by Bryan Flint in Seger, TX (dead center between Houston,
Austin, and Waco) on August 2, 2003. Although taken some years after the
UP merger, these photos show several interesting features to good effect.
Essentially, this unit is unchanged from its SPL modifications circa 1995, as
follows:
- Low nose Pyle light has been removed and blanked, as well as the class
lights, with little cosmetic effort.
- Addition of ditch lights, mounted above the deck line.
- Horn has been removed from the cab to the middle of the long hood.
- Blanked-out rear number boards.
What is also still visible are most of the Chessie options which came on
these units as delivered:
- Bell mounted high on the right side of the long hood.
- "Mail Slot" battery box cover, visible in the third image.
- Jumbo plow, larger than most other Rio Grande models (except for the three
GP60s).
Distinctive Rio Grande items include:
- The plow merely looks black. Under all that grime is a
standard coat of Grande gold.
- Small unit numbers at rear edge of the long hood. This practice
began with the tunnel motors, which had no rear number boards. Rio
Grande continued it with the SD50 series, even though there was a lighted
number board just around the corner.
The 5503 was renumbered to UP 9849 on 13 April 2005 |
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Top: SD50 No. 5506, November 1990, on the
departure track at North Yard (Denver).
Bottom: Here it is during the late Southern Pacific era (circa 1995), working in California along with fellow SD50
No. 5514, which had been repainted in SP colors by then. (Clarence Dent photo.) The 5506 was repainted as UP 5100 on Sept. 4, 2001.
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SD50 No. 5507
is seen on Nov. 20, 1991 at Tunnel One, as the fourth unit from the front
of a loaded coal train.
This unit is featured in my
Detailed Photos
section.
The 5507 was the last SD50 to remain in original D&RGW
colors, finally being patched as UP 9851 on August 3, 2005.
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SD50 No. 5511, wearing its Southern Pacific camouflage, is seen in Kansas with a sister SD50. Brad Hoeme photo.
This unit is the third unit back in this photo.
SP5511 was patched to UP 5105 around 12/10/01, then
to UP 9855 on 8/15/02.
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SD50 No. 5512 -- photographed Dec. 1991,
She was on the swing helper set of an eastbound coal train, and is diving into Tunnel
One.
This unit is featured in my
Detailed Photos
section. The 5512 was repainted as
Union Pacific
No. 5106.
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SD50 No. 5515 is seen on June 29, 1995
leading a four unit swing helper
on an eastbound coal train
at Glenwood Springs, CO.
Top image: approaching and passing the depot.
Bottom:
passing by and throttling up as they hit the canyon grade. You can see the
engineer's silhouette in this shot.
The 5515 was repainted as UP 5109 on Oct. 3, 2001.
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