Kind of Like What Happened to "the Leader" in the Movie Sleeper...
Cotton Belt 7643 was built in January 1979 as part of an order for 30 GP40-2s. It served parent company Southern Pacific well for a little over five years, until it was involved in an accident at El Monte, California, on June 13, 1984. One day after the one-year anniversary of that wreck, the engine's nose sat among other salvaged parts from wrecked engines at SP's Taylor Yard locomotive shops. The damage to this engine was too great to justify rebuilding, and so usable parts were stripped off to be donated to other, less severely damaged engines.
