whats with all the GP30's?

[scharnhorst]

I just moved out here to Tulsa, OK and have seen at leased 8 GP30's of mixed ATSF and BN heritage I would thought that almost every class 1 Railroad had purged these old locos by now. What are they being used for at this time and why do they keep them around are they just that good of a loco to keep around?

[Backshophoss]

They are basicly yard switchers now,might switch local industries next to the yard and switch industry tracks where
SD-40-2's are not allowed.

[Ken S.]

I believe they were rebuilt in various forms by BN and ATSF before the merger.

[Engineer Spike]

The former ATSF units had been upgraded at some point, but the BN units are called GP39s, even though they are not the same as the EMD model. The program used GP30 and 35 cores. They have -2 electrical systems. Three suppliers did the rebuilds, VMV, Morrison Knudson, and EMD. The units model numbers GP39E, V, or M stand for which company rebuilt it. Some cores were ex NS high hood GP30s. These still have the flairings around the air intakes and dynamic brake grids, but have a GP35->modern standard style cab.