In the many demands of my busy life I have had occasion to pause a sufficient amount of time to enumerate the total number of GP9s owned by the Cotton Belt. I found the answer to be twelve. I used Joe Strapac's book, "Cotton Belt Locomotives." Can that be correct? I thought Espee had 200 of those engines. I would have thought that Cotton Belt would have a few more than twelve! Anyone verify this? No low hood models.
Garmany quotes 12, in two groups - 820-825 in Class Z17.5 later EF418C-1 and 826-831 also Class Z17.5 and then EF418C-2. Plus the only GP7 anywhere on the EsPee and its subsidiaries.
There were 340 GP9s on the combined Espee/T&NO and Cotton Belt system. Cotton Belt was fully dieselized by the fourth quarter of 1953 and had no immediate need for additional diesels. All steam was either laid up, leased, sold off or retired by the fourth quarter of '53. The last operational steam on Cotton Belt was in early October 1953. Several things happened to Cotton Belt in the later 1950s that required additional diesels. The original diesels were getting older so their maintenance ratio was up and their availability was down. There was a general speed up of freight schedules by Cotton Belt and Southern Pacific. This is written about in Fred Frailey's book Blue Streak Merchandise. And Gravity Yard was completed in Pine Bluff in 1958. New and improved scheduling caused the need for addtional Cotton Belt diesels. The dozen GP9s were the answer to the question. No doubt you know that 20 GP20s and 10 RSD-15s quickly followed in 1960-1962.
"Out on the C Branch things were not as fast as out on the mainline of the Cotton Belt. Fireman Harley Davis remembers working with Red on a train out of Fort Worth’s Hodge Yard from about 1960. “Red Standefer was pulling the 50 freight cars of #18 out of Hodge up Carrollton Hill toward Addison with a GP9 and two FT units. Alarm bells sounded as the two FTs died on the hill, I went back through the units and found one died on account of ground relay trouble and one died on account of overheating. Neither unit would restart. The train never stalled as Red used his years of experience to keep it going at about 3-4 MPH with the one near new GP9 and hauled the two dead FTs into Addison where a power swap was made with J. D. “Dale” Dupre’s #318 train out of Dallas. Red got some better power and the 318 train got the two broke down FTs.” By this time the FTs were in their very last years of service as 10 would be traded in to EMD for a like number of GP20s in 1960 and the remaining 10 FTs were traded in the following year on another 10 GP20s. The “C” Branch of the Cotton Belt was not known for the newest of motive power." From Chapter 8 Cotton Belt Engineer: The Life and Times of C. W. "Red" Standefer 1898-1981.
One unit, SSW 3809 still lives today with her original Cotton Belt paint scheme. This unit now resides next to the beautiful Mississippi river in Keokuk, IA
Well, well. SSW3809 just happens to be one of the engines I am modeling. On a slightly different subject...3809 has the fuel filler at the front of the tank. All SSW GP9s were built with this option as the fuel filler location for all GP9s (except low nose engines) was at the rear of the tank. This made Cotton Belt engines slightly different from Espee engines, as usual. Further, I have seen photos of SSW GP9s and Espee GP9s with the fuel filler at the opposite location that they should be! I can only think that it must have been maintenance or rebuilds that the fuel tanks were switched. Thus it is best to use a photo when modeling if you can. SSW9389: Good info. Thanks for posting. :thumbs_up:
There were several SSW GP9s working in and through Commerce, TEXAS while I was there in 1972-73. There were many more Espee GP9s working the same trains. The Cotton Belt GP9s were a treat as they were so rare to see. This photo represents the only Cotton Belt Black Widow Geep I ever saw. Ed in Drying Out, Kentucky
Here is a Terry Kirkland photo of the 3644. Terry worked for Cotton Belt as a Train Order Clerk and was a lifelong railfan.
