I have been viewing Richard Percy's Southern Pacific Modeler's Website and I can find no U33Cs with rear light packages. I presume this was normal for U33Cs? I am surprised that these engines would be exempt. The B30-7s seem to have had rear light packages. Thanks for the help.
AFAIK none of the Espee U33C's had the light show on the rear of the unit. They did have the Espee lights on the front though. Athearn's U33C just needs a Utah Pacific Number 71 light mounted above the headlight between the numberboards. The light had a red lense.
Yep, front light packages only on the U33Cs; AFAIK, the only Espee U-series units with rear lights were the U25Bs...still trying to confirm whether or not the U28Bs had rear signal lights, but rear shots of them have been tough to come by. Changes in policies saw Espee specifying rear packages on road power (the SD39s being an early exception) by the late 70s, which is why the later B30-7s had front and rear lights, while the earlier U33Cs didn't.
U25B Rear Lights These photos are from Richard Percy's site and show the end of the long hood on Espee's U25B units. It dosen't look like there was a light show in the U25B's
While Richard's site is one of the best for all things SP, like any website, it doesn't cover everything. All of SP’s U25Bs, with the exception of the last group, SP 7528-7567, came equipped with light packages and number boards (or indicators, in SP-speak) front and rear. If you refer to the book "Southern Pacific Historic Diesels, Volume 5: GE U-Series Locomotives", there are numerous photos that show the rear light show on the rear of SP U25Bs. Page 6 has shots of brand-new SP 7500, 7501, 7503, and 7502 on a freight near Watsonville in 1962, and all four exhibit the rear light show, particularly the protruding UDE Gyralight. Page 7 has a shot of brand-new 7501 at Bayshore in 1962, and the rear red UDE light is visible protruding from the hood rear. Page 10 has a shot of 6700 (ex-7500) coupled to a sister U25B, taken in 1973 at Taylor, and while the rear light show is now gone, the brackets remain on both. There's also a GE broadside shot of SP 7513 at Erie in 1963, and the rear UDE light is clearly visible. Also, there's a rear-end shot of SP 6716 at Houston in 1966 on page 13, that shows the empty bracket and blanking plate where the lights were located, and as the caption states, "Both the emergency air brake signal light and the oscillating headlight have been removed for use on another locomotive." Apparently SP was robbing lights from the U25Bs early on, since there’s a shot taken at Taylor in 1965 on page 19 of SP 7532 that shows its front Gyralight plated over. And if you look closely at the pics you linked, SP 6715, from the second order, shows the bracket extending from the hood rear that previously held the red UDE light; apparently by the time the photo was taken (1970), SP had robbed it to use on another unit. And while there are clearly no rear lights on the rear of the 6740 and 6766 you also linked to, both are units from the third and final order, which came from GE without rear lights or numberboards. So in a nutshell, I spoke a little too soon when I implied earlier that all of the SP U25Bs had rear lights; the third and final order, SP 7528-7567, lacked them. But more importantly, it shows how good books can be an invaluable research tool…the internet is cool, but a good book on a particular subject can be just as important, if not more so. :thumbs_up:
It's true. Most stuff from before the digital era still hasn't been digitized, let alone put on the web.
