I was actually involved as a volunteer with that group in the 1990s when I lived in Jax. The unit you're talking about is ACL 100 (later SCL 785), the first GP-7 they bought.
Sadly, after I left, with the museum falling on even harder times (it never did find a permanent home where it could open to the public), some of the equipment was sold to cover some debts. Sadly, the folks involved at the time decided the 100 would fetch the most cash, and off it went to CYD. Glad to hear its still intact and serviceable.
It was repainted from rusty SCL black to ACL black by the museum in the 90s. I still have some T-shirts with black paint on them to prove it. Among other things, during that time it did travel to Blount Island for display to the public for the Port Authority's "PortFest" along with some other equipment from the museum and CSX, and also worked on the Florida West Coast for a few months, where they leased it as a spare in return for some mechanical work that we couldn't perform ourselves.
I was always very disappointed that it was sold off to CYD...I'm sure that any number of museums (Gold Coast, Spencer, the NRHS group in Savannah, and so on) could have given the ACL's first Geep a good home.
ACLfan wrote:Hey, ENGINEER JAMES:
I just recalled that one former ACL - SCL EMD GP7 is still in existence, and is in active operations!
It is painted in ACL's black w/ yellow trim, and is working for Conrad Yelvington Distributors at their Gainesville, FL facility.
This is hard to believe, but the locomotive was donated to a railroad museum, who later sold the locomotive to CYD almost 10 years ago!
CYD decided to repaint the loco back into its old ACL colors, rather than the CYD color scheme.
CYD operates gravel, rock and aggregate distribution facilities throughout FL and other nearby southern states. CYD owns and operates Alco switchers and older EMD units (GP7 and GM30M units).
As always,
ACLfan