Paducah-Rebuild

Sayre C. Kos.

Wisconsin-Southern 2501, a Paducah-Rebuild SD20, at Avalon, Wisconsin, started life as a Union Pacific cabless SD24B.

My most recent issue of Locomotive Magazine, which had the Norfolk Southern executive-Fs at Horseshoe Curve, and prompted my dentist to talk about stainless-steel hopper-cars, for which he was soundly corrected (they’re aluminum), has an interesting treatment of Illinois Central’s Paducah-Rebuilds getting a second life (pictured).
Illinois Central’s Paducah, KY shops rebuilt a slew of diesel railroad locomotives during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
Paducah rebuilt hundreds of four-axle Geeps and 42 SDs (six-axle).
The one pictured was originally a cabless Union Pacific SD24B. The Paducah-Rebuild was to convert to an unturbocharged 645 engine, Dash-2 electronics, and a cab.
The SD20 is not an EMD model. EMD never built an SD20.
It’s an Illinois Central designation. 20 is 2,000 horsepower.

“Norfolk Southern executive-Fs” are the classic bulldog-nosed diesel locomotives the railroad uses to pull special executive trains. The first General Motors diesel freight locomotives were F-units.

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. (I am a railfan, and I posted a photograph on my family’s web-site of the executive-Fs at Horseshoe Curve for them to identify the location — we all have been there quite a few times.)

My dentist mentioned long trains of “stainless-steel hopper-cars” (coal-cars), out in Wyoming where he was hunting, after looking at my Locomotive Magazine. (They’re aluminum.)

A “Geep” is a four-axle General Motors railroad diesel-locomotive; GP is their model-designation. GP models are called “Geeps” by railfans.

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

“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.