Thursday, September 04, 2014

New UP GE locos at Willard, OH

Received the following from our correspondent in NW Pennsylvania. 

Nice Willard shops shot from Terry, Ken. Back in the day, this would have not unlike the Union Pacific General Electric U-Boat scenes at Marion, Ohio shops. The UP used to have the Erie Lackawanna's mechanical forces put their brand-new GEs in service in Ohio and then work west for delivery for tax purposes. This was true of U30Cs and even the U50Cs.

In the early Seventies, a pair of new U50Cs were photographed as sole power at a Huntington, Indiana crew change on a westbound Gary Coke Train that the EL had picked up from the Bessemer and Lake Erie RR at the Shenango, PA interchange. Shenango Yard was
also where the B&LE would hand off new GEs for many western roads (received by them at Erie from the East Erie Commercial RR that switched GE/Erie). Back in those days, the UP paint scheme still included an attractive red Scotchlite frame stripe that the FRA rather recently required be changed to an anemic, blah yellow one on contemporary UP power. 
 ---Nate

 

Our friend Terry rides (or photos) again --- New “Uncle Petes” at Willard, Ohio fresh out of Erie, PA --- nice indeed.  

---Ken