GP30

GP30

The Keed, long ago with the SpotMatic.

Pennsy GP30 #2233.

BEHOLD, the humble EMD GP30 (pictured); also called the “Geep-30” by my friend Chip Walker at Transit (as in “Jeep”).
Probably the most collected diesel-electric railroad-locomotive of all time; perhaps even more than the “F” cab-unit “covered-wagons,” of which I’m sure there are many extant. (The “FT” was General Motors entry into the road-locomotive market in 1939.)
The GP30 wasn’t much; an evolutionary step up from the GP20 in response to the new and popular General-Electric U25B.
It was the same hoary old 567 engine that had been introduced in 1939, updated of course, and turbocharged. The GP30 is 1961-‘63 and good for 2,250 horsepower (the U25B got 2,500 horsepower; and the original FT only 1,350 horsepower).
General Motors’ FT diesel-locomotive retired the steam locomotive. The FT was like a big truck, and allowed the railroads to retire all their back-country steam-locomotive servicing facilities — e.g. water-supplies and coaling towers.
Like a truck, all you had to do was fuel it up.
Diesels also allowed closing of complex steam-locomotive shops. No longer did you have to hire for shopping a steam-locomotive; which required various skills. You serviced it like a truck.
Diesel-electric locomotives were also better-suited for what most railroads were doing, which was lugging heavy loads slowly up steep grades. Diesel-electrics generated great tractive-effort at start-up and slow speed. A steam-locomotive didn’t really generate that much until it got rolling.
But the original FTs (and similar “covered-wagons”) suffered from operation from only one end. Like steam-engines, they had to be turned.
This is where road-switchers (like the GP30) shined. They could be operated in either direction.

The Keed, with the SpotMatic.

The Redskins GP30 on Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.

The earliest “Geeps” were the GP7 and then GP9 (7048 at the mighty Curve is a GP9). Later were the GP18 and then the GP20, the first turbocharged EMD road-switcher.
The reason the GP30 is such an icon is styling. GM’s automotive styling department was roped into trying to make the humble Geep look good.
The GP30 was also GM’s first step away from the curved-roof cab that was on the GP7 through GP20.
The car-body also had to be raised to accommodate the closed air-supply that was added — since the unit wasn’t lengthened.
But the main styling filigree was the “brush-back” panel atop the cab — an extension of the dynamic-brake blister.
The cab also had rounded edges instead of the 45° beveled corners of the “Spartan-Cab” on the GP35 and later EMD road-switchers.
EMD has of course come far beyond the GP30, and most GP30s have been retired (or rebuilt into more modern iterations, or engineless slugs [that draw their power from adjacent engines]).
GP30s use ancient electronics that weren’t yet modernized as they were in the “Dash-2” iterations. (For example, there are two versions of the GP40; the GP40 [with old electronics], and the GP40-2 [with more modern electronics].
GP30s are direct-current to the traction-motors. Many modern railroad diesels are alternating-current — which lugs better at slow speed.
Yet many GP30s were bought by collectors. Their styling makes them special.

The “SpotMatic” was the Honeywell SpotMatic 35mm single-lens-reflex film camera I used for at least 40 years — I had two bodies. I now have a digital camera; a Nikon D100.

“EMD” is Electromotive Division of General Motors, GM’s manufacturer of railroad diesel-locomotives. Most railroads used EMD when they dieselized; although many now use General-Electric railroad diesel-locomotives.

RE: “Transit......” For 16&1/2 years I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, N.Y.

A “Geep” is a four-axle General Motors railroad diesel-locomotive; GP is their model-designation (General-Purpose). GP models were nicknamed “Geeps” by railfans. (The six-axle iterations are “SDs” — SD equaling Special-Duty.)

General Motors had three separate cylinder-sizes of diesel railroad-locomotives; the 567, the 645, and now 710. The number is the displacement of each individual cylinder of the locomotive’s diesel-engine: e.g. 567 cubic-inches. Many diesel-locomotives have V16 engines; although there have been V12s and V20s. Some railroad diesel-locomotives (e.g. EMD’s E-unit passenger engine) had two engines.

Cab-unit railroad-locomotives were nicknamed “covered-wagons” by the crews.

Horseshoe Curve (the “mighty Curve”), west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, is by far the BEST railfan spot I have ever been to. Horseshoe Curve is a national historic site. It was a trick used by the Pennsylvania Railroad to get over the Allegheny mountains without steep grades. Horseshoe Curve was opened in 1854, and is still in use. GP9 #7048 is on display there. The Pennsylvania Railroad is no longer in existence. It merged with arch-competitor New York Central Railroad in 1968 as Penn-Central, and that went bankrupt in about two years. “Pennsy” was once the largest railroad in the world. Horseshoe Curve is now owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad, a successor to Conrail, which succeeded Penn-Central.

RE: “dynamic-brakes.......” The traction-motors of railroad diesel-electric locomotives get turned into generators, the current of which heats up giant toaster-grids in the “dynamic-brake blister.” Doing so creates a braking action. “Dynamic-brakes” were usually an option, usually bought by railroads that had grades, since “dynamic-brakes” could help slow a train better than just the brakes on the train-cars.