Moo all, For any of you rare ATSF power fans in the northwest area, there is an EMD GP40X in Bluebonnet colors sitting at the end of the sand racks at Interbay Yard in Seattle. It's been there since at least last friday when BN9900 and I saw it, and was still there today. Fo anyone who hasn't seen one of these rare beasts, it's a standard GP40 with SD45 style flaired radiators. THere were 37 produced in the late 70s and they were a prototype for the GP50 line and introduced the single axle wheelslip system on EMDs. Most of the class 1 roads at the time got a couple to see what was coming down the line from EMD. If anyone wants directions to find this puppy, email me at cthippo@yahoo.com.
I really like the GP40X's and would have loved to see one of the ATSF units up close. I thought I read that the GP40X was not built on a standard GP40/GP40-2 chassis; it had a unique chassis that was 1 foot longer than the others, and also had truck centers 1 foot farther apart. I know SP, UP, ATSF, and Southern all bought a few units. (Being an East Coaster, all I have ever seen is the Southern [later NS] units. I have attached a link to one I photographed: http://www.trainweb.org/ncrail/images/NS7002.jpg Southern had only 3 units, all high hood units, the only one delivered. Harold [ 12 January 2002: Message edited by: chessie ]
I've also seen one of the SP's GP40Xs,, but that was at Rosevill yard in Sacramento CA. I don't think either of these units are active as I know the Roseville one has been sitting there for a couple of years and the one at Interbay seems th have settled in for the winter. About all I can say is I'm glad to have caught them.
I agree.... any sighting of GP40X's is a good sighting. I was thumbing through some railfan magazines on the newstand today and think I saw a picture of one of the SP units, referred to as a former SP unit, now CEFX (?) Harold
Hi I'm new to this site...Just wanted to respectfully point out that a standard production GP40X is anything but a standard GP40 with flared radiators. They were one of the very first diesels EMD built with low profile Q fans (to address noise concerns). These difficult to see from the ground fans featured 3 different blades that produced differing sound frequencies that cancelled each other out. These fans were later replaced with standard profile Q fans during servicing. Though EMD did build a "GP-40X" experimental unit number 433A in 1965---according to Wikipedia, it has very little in common with the GP-40X. The late 70's GP-40X used a turbocharged 645F 16 cylinder prime mover and produced 3500 horsepower or 875 horsepower per axle. For a few years that was the highest horsepower per axle rating on the Santa Fe. They were assigned to the general mainline pool including the hottest intermodal trains. All ten units are still on the BNSF active roster, and at least two units have been photographed and posted online as still being in fairly decent (considering the age) blue and yellow warbonnet paint as of 2006. One unit was recently (incorrectly) reported on another site as being the LAST non-BNSF patch yellow warbonnet, however, the cited photo of 3037 happened to show the right side, where doors had been replaced, and the left side of 3037 clearly reveals the BNSF initials. Here's a link to an image from July 19, 2006: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=445014 That's a great site--if you search for GP-40X you'll find plenty of photos of the units on ALL roads. Sadly, to my knowledge NO non-BNSF patched Santa Fe diesels exist in service at this time. Regards-- John
