In 1964, dissatisfied with the Alco FA-1's that they owned, due to the poor visibility when switching and simply a need to upgrade, the Ann Arbor elected to replace their roster with 10 new GP35's. At that time, EMD offered a special program that allowed the Annie and other railroads to trade in any power, including Alcos, and the trucks and traction motors would be reused on the new power to help reduce costs on the final delivery. As a result, all 10 of the Ann Arbor GP35's were delivered with Alco trucks. Today, 5 of the 10 GP35's are either still operational or in the process of being repaired due to the need for extensive maintenance with the Great Lakes Central, and all of them still carry their Alco trucks, which are in excess of 65 years old. Here, 386 sits just outside of the locomotive shops in 1976. This unit was damaged severely in a fire that destroyed the back shops just a short distance from where the photo was taken, and was deemed beyond salvage, and was subsequently scrapped. 35mm slide from my collection, photographer unknown.
An exclamation attributed to TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, it is this eponymous expression of which certain images convey man and machine versus nature . . .
