GP30 #2223

Pennsylvania Railroad GP30 #2233, the real thing, not 2223 (a model). (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the Pentax Spotmatic camera.) —I saw a picture of this unit before repaint into Conrail colors, and it looked rather bedraggled and badly in need of cosmetic restoration (rusting to pieces). I can’t find it.

Pennsylvania Railroad GP30 #2223 still exists, assuming ya accept that it’s only a G-scale model in the Canandaigua Weggers.
Just about every Wegmans I’ve been to, at least in the Rochester area, has a G-scale model-railroad suspended from the ceiling.
Usually it’s over the bulk-food department, although in Canandaigua it’s over a cheese display.
A locomotive, sometimes lettered “Wegmans,” continuously pulls a model train around a loop, of freightcars lettered “Reese’s Peanut-Butter cups,” “Three Musketeers,” and “Hershey’s Kisses.”
G-scale is pretty large, 45 mm (almost 1.75 inches) between the rails. #2223 is about a foot long, and the freightcars are pretty large too.
The layout at the Pittsford Plaza Wegmans, the so-called “Jewel-In-The-Crown,” is quite large too.
The Pittsford Plaza Wegmans is HUGE — so big ya need a powered cart. It even has valet service in its vast parking-lot.
The Pittsford Plaza Wegmans had steam-locomotive models at first.
They probably wore ‘em out, so now they have EMD F-unit diesels; two units pulling about 10 cars.
Trouble is, they still have the “choo-choo” sound emitting from the diesels.
A railfan would have a fit!
A diesel-locomotive doesn’t “choo.”
Obviously their layout wasn’t assembled by a railfan.
“Oh look, Johnny. It’s even ‘chooing.’”
Thankfully, GP30 #2223 isn’t chooing. What it does is blow its horn and ring its bell.
It’s only one unit pulling maybe eight cars, including a caboose.
The GP30 is one of a series of “road-switchers” marketed by General Motors’ ElectroMotive Division (“EMD”).
Road-switchers were a concept pioneered by American Locomotive Company (Alco) in 1941, and railroads loved ‘em because they increased visibility for operating crew.
Most early diesels were “cab-units” with bodies the same width as the locomotive cab — integral with it.
A cab-unit really only worked well in one direction. Bidirectional operation was difficult, because visibility in the opposite direction was hampered.
Switchers didn’t have that problem. The engine-hood was narrow, so the crew in the cab could see along it.
But a switcher had its cab at one end, exposed cab-ahead to accidents in road operation.
The solution was to put a small hood in front of the cab, to reduce accident exposure.
So a road-switcher has three segments atop its frame: -1) A long hood over the engine; narrow; -2) a full-width operating cab; and finally -3) a short hood of engine-hood width at the opposite end.
So that the engine-crew always had a hood between them and accidents; although some railroads, e.g. Norfolk & Western and Southern Railway, operated long hood first.
Road switchers also used over-the-road trucks; the same as on cab-units — making them appropriate for road operation.
Alco pioneered the concept with its RS1, but EMD soon followed with its “GP” (General-Purpose) series — first the GP7, and then the GP9.
An option was to cut the height of the short hood in half, so that a window could be installed in the locomotive cab above the short hood to increase forward vision.
Many railroads did this, and it became a factory option on later GP models; e.g. the GP18 and GP20.
The GP18 replaced the GP9; and the GP20 was the first EMD locomotive with turbocharging.
Horsepowers were GP7 = 1,500 horsepower; GP9 = 1,750 horsepower; GP18 = 1,800 horsepower; and GP20 = 2,000 horsepower.
All used the 567 engine; that’s 567 cubic-inches of displacement per cylinder; times 16 cylinders is 9,072 cubic inches displacement.
Car displacement runs around 300-350 cubic inches.
EMD also fielded a six-axle variation; their “SD” (Super-Duty) series; same engine and horsepower on a six-axle chassis.
The GP30 was a response to the new General Electric U25B series.
The U (“U-boat”) series was especially attractive to railroads because it used a central filtered air-supply with a sealed hood.
It also generated 2,500 horsepower; the GP20 only 2,000.
Plus ease-of-maintenance was designed in.
So EMD set about upgrading its GP20; at first it was supposed to be called the GP22.
The rear hood had to be raised to allow a centralized air-supply; and this made the cab they were using on the earlier GP units unusable.
It was a last use of the 567 (the later GP35 also used the 567), but they managed to crank 2,250 horsepower out of the GP30 — not a match for GE’s 2,500, but they were hoping to get by with the railroads’ experience with EMD units.
The GP30 was the first EMD road switcher with the cut-down short hood no longer an option. It came that way.
The GP35 got 2,500 horsepower, and the later GP40 got 3,000 horsepower, but the GP40 used a newer engine with 645 cubic inches of displacement per cylinder — the 645.
The locomotive cab on the GP30 had to be redesigned to agree with the raised hood height; and at this point the guys at GM auto styling were dragged in to gussy up the cab design.
Which is why the GP30 is now so collectible. It’s one-of-a-kind; an attempt to make the GP road-switchers look great.
The cab-roofs were rounded at the corners, and the hood blister extended over the cab.
A unique and recognizable appearance — you can’t misidentify a GP30.
And the 30 series was only available as four-axle GP; a six-axle SD30 was unavailable.
Later GP units had the so-called “Spartan” cab; 45 degree chamfered at the cab-corners. It raised the center cab height to agree with the hood height.
The “Spartan” cab was also used on SD units.
I don’t know as the GP30 was that successful — although many were sold; 948.
But the U25B sold well too — 478.
Alco had a competitor in its RS27 (2,400 horsepower), but eventually Alco tanked.
So 2223 circles the track above the Weggers cheese-display, blowing its horn and ringing its bell — both are audio-files.
I doubt the horn-sound is the actual horn-sound of 2223, but it may be. It doesn’t sound like the standard locomotive horn from back then, but the horns on diesel-locomotives tended to degrade after sucking birds.
Two longs, a short, and then a long — the signal for a road-crossing; although there is no road-crossing near the Weggers ceiling.
My first thought was that 2223 was the GP30 retained by an excursion shortline north of Harrisburg along the west bank of the Susquehanna river.
That’s actually 2233, a photo of which is above — from long ago when it was on that shortline.
2233 is now at Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania adjacent to Strasburg Rail Road.
It’s been repainted into Conrail colors, and is inside.
Conrail GP30 #2233, inside, at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

And General Electric has since surpassed General Motors’ EMD.
And four-axle locomotives are no longer available from GE and EMD.
EMD no longer exists; it was sold when GM went bankrupt.

• The Pennsylvania Railroad no longer exists. It merged with New York Central Railroad in 1968 as Penn-Central, and that tanked in about eight years — followed by Conrail. “Pennsy” was once the largest railroad in the world.
• RE: “‘Old guy’ with the SpotMatic.......” —My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston, who is 13 years younger than me, calls me “the old guy” as a put-down (I also am the oldest). The “SpotMatic” is my old Pentax SpotMatic single-lens-reflex 35mm film camera I used about 40 years, since replaced by a Nikon D100 digital camera.
• “Weggers” is Wegmans, a large supermarket-chain based in Rochester we often buy groceries at. They have a store in Canandaigua. (“Canandaigua” [“cannon-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.)
• “Pittsford” is an old suburb of Rochester to the southeast, “Pittsford Plaza” a large shopping plaza west of Pittsford.
• I’ve been a railfan all my life.
• “EMD” is ElectroMotive Division of General Motors, GM’s manufacturer of diesel railroad-locomotives. Most railroads used EMD when they dieselized; although many now use General-Electric diesel railroad-locomotives.
• “Alco” is American Locomotive Company of Schenectady, NY. For years, American Locomotive Company was a primary manufacturer of railroad steam locomotives. (It was originally a merger of many steam locomotive manufacturers.) —With the changeover by railroads to diesel-locomotives, American Locomotive Company brought out a line of diesel-electric railroad locomotives much like the railroads were switching to, and changed its name to “Alco.” Alco tanked a while ago; they never competed as well as EMD.
• “F-units” are the early diesel locomotives marketed by EMD for freight-service. They looked like passenger units, but had only one engine, a 45-degree V16. The passenger units (“E-units”) had two V12 engines of 1,000 horsepower each — total unit rating was 2,000 horsepower. The F-unit had a car-body integral with the cab; full width. —Alco also produced a cab freight unit; the FA, but the EMD units were preferred because they were more reliable.
• “Turbocharging” is to supercharge the engine intake-air input with a supercharger driven by exhaust gases. Prior to “turbocharging” the engine intake-air input was “supercharged” with mechanically driven superchargers. (A supercharger forces more intake-air into an engine by compressing it.) —Diesel-engines are always unthrottled. The amount of intake-air forced into the cylinders is always as much as possible. The power output is a function of the amount of fuel burned.
• “Conrail” is a government amalgamation of east-coast railroads that went bankrupt pretty much at the same time as Penn-Central. Conrail included other bankrupt east-coast railroads, like Erie-Lackawanna and Lehigh Valley; but eventually went private as it became more successful. Conrail has since been broken up, sold to CSX Transportation Industries (railroad) and Norfolk Southern railroad. CSX got mainly the old New York Central routes, and NS got the old PRR routes, although NS also has the old Erie Railroad route across southern NY.