AZL April 2014 New Items - Part 2

Any plan to add big brother SD-9 ?

That's OK, Hans. I already have a Baldwin Sharknose. (lol)

I like the look of the profile with the rooftop tanks. Just looking for an excuse to buy one. I like to try to match with prototype areas I model. I would have thought these would have been commonly used through Donner Pass and through the Wasatch, but can't find any images. Anyone know where SP typically ran these units?

Mark

The passenger GP9s were generally assigned to the SF peninsula / Bay Area for use on the commuter trains. Although SP liked to keep all their engines in revenue service, so on weekends some would be assigned to freight service. A trip to Reno and back might be feasible. Here are some images of 3005 as far as Roseville.

www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=442353&nseq=1168

www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=340085&nseq=1135

Guys,
Thanks for the input. Silly me: I figured that locos that have extended range fuel tanks would actually be used by SP for extended range! James, your comment about Santa Clara gave me a few research clues as there is no real yard there.
I did a bit more research. At least two of the passenger GPs were assigned to the "Del Monte" passenger trains, San Francisco - Monterrey until that train's demised in 1971. While I can't find a documented assignment, a number of photos exist at Palo Alto and Redwood that suggest the locos were at least occasionally used for the LA-SF "Lark" and for the "Big Game Specials" in the 50's.
Curn: I've spent most of my life living within a mile of the peninsula line (except for mid-1960s to late 1970s) and I don't recall seeing these engines as often as images online would suggest. I remember the F7s being more common.
Hans: Good to read the freight GP9s are coming, but I can understand going with the passenger versions first: torpedoes are just too interesting. Now how many of the half dozen WP paint scheme can we expect?

Mark

Hans.
Thanks. The Zephyr colors are fine with me. FYI for the GPs they also used the Pullman Green (like MTL) and the so-called "New image Green", which always looked like a blue/black to me. There were variations on the orange details: safety (striped) nose, bloody nose, orange road numbers, road numbers on orange field. In fact as I recall. there were as many paint variations of the Gp7/9 as there were locos owned by WP.

Mark