It sure was a surprise to see this 56 year old high nosed ex-AMTK GP9u at the back of the consist! This unit started life in August of 1950 as WAB 451 (A Wabash GP7, it later worked for N&W too). It was rebuilt as a GP9u in 1978 for Amtrak and painted in their MOW Orange sheme. This unit was retired in June 2005 at Albany, NY in this silver and black scheme shown here. All they've done was apply a small stencil on the cab, and remove the horn and put blue masking tape over the Amtrak logos, still a VERY Amtrak unit, even has its strobes. They were used as switchers and in MOW Service before being retired. |