This locomotive was probably built with a high hood, but could have been built without a cab at all. Only some one with access to an Illinois Central Gulf roster of rebuilt locomotives could know for sure. During the I. C. G. rebuild program many engines and parts of engines were dumped into the "Great Paducah Mixing bowl" at the I. C. G. Kentucky shops. At one point in the rebuild program, The Bluegrass Model Railroad Club was able to arrange a tour of the Paducah, Kentucky Shops. The brother of one of our club members was in charge of the rebuild program, and he conducted our tour. All units entering the program were stripped of trucks, couplers, and everything above the upper frame level. At one point in our visit, we were in a large area of the facility which had several overhead bridge cranes which were removing large parts of the locomotives. I was surprised to see that there were several Union Pacific units, one of which had just been brought in, and was a GP- 7 or 9 B. I asked about it and was told that all of the U.P. units in the group purchased from the U.P. were B units, but that not having a cab was not a problem as they were building their own new cabs and could chop down the noses. The #7954 shown in John's photo has a "Paducah Built" cab. Also GP-7s became GP-10s and GP-9s became GP-11s so #7954 probably is a GP-11. The same club member (mentioned above) models The Paducah & Louisville railroad, and designed the first P & L paint scheme and painted it on an HO model, which he then drove to Paducah to show to the P & L owners. The owners liked the modeled paint scheme and adopted it. This was one of those rare cases where the model was the prototype and the full sized locomotive was the copy. I wonder if John happened to photograph #7954 from the front. Thanks for the posting sir.
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Bill
I got several Pictures from the front of this engine and the whole train, but of course, the light can't be good at both sides of the train. So the nose of the engine is too dark to show in this gallerie.
John
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ICG GP8 7954 was rebuilt in 1977 from Pittsburgh & Lake Erie (P&LE) GP7 5682 (built Sep 1951, 14579, 6306-1). IC/ICG GP8 locomotives were numbered in the 7700, 7800 and 7900-series. All ICG GP11s were numbered in the 8700-series. The statement about all GP8 locomotives being rebuilt from GP7s and all GP10s being rebuilt from GP9s is incorrect. The GP8 started out as either a GP7 or GP9. The GP10 started out as either a GP7, GP9, or GP18. Paducah Shops was notorious for poor record-keeping practices.
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In addition to using its own fleet of GP7, GP9, and GP18 locomotives, ICG also acquired secondhand locomotives from B&M, B&O, CC&O, C&O, D&RGW, DT&I, FEC, GTW, P&LE, Potlack Forests, Precision National, QNS&L, RDG, SLSF, SP, SSW, STJ&LC and UP for inclusion into the Paducah rebuild program.
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ICG 7954 is ex-P&LE 1527, nee NYC 5782. Built as a GP7, it was rebuilt at ICG's Paducah, KY shops as a GP8 in May 1977.
>> GP-7s became GP-10s and GP-9s became GP-11s <<
Incorrect. GP7s and GP9s were rebuilt into GP8s, GP10, and GP11s. Additionally, two GP18s were rebuilt, one as a GP10, the other as a GP11. I may as well mention that the first GP11, ICG 8301, was actually rebuilt from GP8 7737.
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