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  • The Sole Surviving Illinois Central GP7 (8951?)

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This forum is for discussion of "Fallen Flag" roads not otherwise provided with a specific forum. Fallen Flags are roads that no longer operate, went bankrupt, or were acquired or merged out of existence.

Moderator: Nicolai3985

 #1574999  by Pensyfan19
 
I'm doing research on a variety of topics for a major project to be uploaded on my YouTube channel in the coming days, and one of the topics listed includes "The Sole Surviving Illinois Central GP7". This would likely be referring to a GP7 which was not rebuilt into a GP8 or GP11. After a long and hard search, I came across this Illinois Central Roster, and have noticed that, other than the other two wrecked units (8908 and 8958), there appears to be one GP7 (8951) which was not "renumbered" and instead stated that it went to the Meridian and Bigbee in 1964. After doing some research on the locomotive, it was [urlhttps://hawkinsrails.net/shortlines/mb/mb.htm]renumbered to 103[/url] and was later rebuilt in Paducah in 1976 where it was given a short hood. This locomotive still exists as WAMX 7008, and is still classified as a GP7. Is this locomotive still classified as a GP7, or is it a GP8/11? If it is the former, then it would be considered as the sole surviving Illinois Central GP7. If it is the latter, than does anyone know of other Illinois Central GP7s which were never rebuilt as a GP8/11?
 #1575020  by eolesen
 
I've seen that listed as both a a GP7R per https://www.thedieselshop.us/Mer&Big.HTML and a GP7U per https://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr3759.htm

Either way, if it was built in 1951, and rebuilt in 1976, a rebuild is a rebuild...

ICG chose to call their rebuilds GP8's. Other railroads chose to call theirs GP7R (Rock Island, CNW, & Precision National) or a GP7U (Santa Fe).