10-14-2012, 08:51 AM
Well, I guess I qualify as a witness to history (and am getting sorta historic myself, if you know what I mean). The SP jobs in the 1980s were generally similar to the jobs you see for UP ex-SP trackage in the Charles Freericks SoCal Locals book, with the exception that a number of lines, like the Santa Monica Air Line and the ex-PE San Bernardino Line through Rialto, etc, are now gone. However, GP9Es were very common on those lines, too. Here is a c 1980s version of what Charles would call the Kaiser Local in his book:
In 2012, this is three gensets, in 1985, three GP9Es. The Santa Monica Air Line was the one that ran closest to where I lived for a good many years, so I was pretty familiar with it. During the 1980s, the daily train (which did industry switching) out of J Yard ran with either a GP9E or an SW1500 -- no rhyme or reason. The difference was that an SW1500 had no toilet, while a GP9E did, so if there was an SW1500 that day, the train had a caboose, otherwise not. I would say that yard jobs were almost always two SW1500s:
While locals more commonly had GP9Es. You could certainly get away with them on your layout.
In 2012, this is three gensets, in 1985, three GP9Es. The Santa Monica Air Line was the one that ran closest to where I lived for a good many years, so I was pretty familiar with it. During the 1980s, the daily train (which did industry switching) out of J Yard ran with either a GP9E or an SW1500 -- no rhyme or reason. The difference was that an SW1500 had no toilet, while a GP9E did, so if there was an SW1500 that day, the train had a caboose, otherwise not. I would say that yard jobs were almost always two SW1500s:
While locals more commonly had GP9Es. You could certainly get away with them on your layout.