One of the most popular rebuild programs of the 1970's and 1980's was the Paducah GP11 rebuild. The talented mechanics for the Illinois Central Gulf at the Paducah, KY shops developed a program that allowed them to generate revenue and allow railroads to send GP7's and GP9's to them and rebuild them to GP11's. The Clinchfield sent several GP7's to Paducah, with 4600 being the first. After a few years, SCL began doing the same procedure in their Uceta shops and CRR sent the rest of their GP7 roster there to be converted to GP16's. However, despite the CRR change, many other railroads sent geeps to Paducah and the rebuilds still roam on small railroads all over the country, still running as good as the day they rolled out of the Paducah shops. 35mm slide from my collection, photo by George Turnbull.
i was born in virginia in 1972. when i think of railroads that shaped the commonwealth. i think of railroads like, SCL, N&W and southern. this is a tribute to those wonderful days gone by and for those who remember it well.
