The EMD GP11 is a four-axle
diesel locomotive rebuilt by the
Illinois Central Railroad
The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also c ...
's
Paducah
Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Miss ...
shops. It is very similar in appearance to the
GP8
The EMD GP8 is a model of four-axle diesel locomotive rebuilt by Illinois Central's Paducah shops using a General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) GP7, GMD GP7 or GP9 as a start. It is similar to the GP10 and GP11.
A total of 111 units wer ...
and
GP10.
The Illinois Central Railroad began its GP11 rebuilding program in 1978. All units were rebuilt from recycled
EMD GP7
The EMD GP7 is a four-axle ( B-B) diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel between October 1949 and May 1954.Pinkepank, Jerry A. (1973) pp. 53
Power was provided by an EMD 567B ...
,
GP9 or
GP18
The EMD GP18 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division between December 1959 and November 1963. Power was provided by an EMD 567D1 16-cylinder engine which generated . The GP18 replaced the GP9 in E ...
parts. Spotting features are an angled cab, exterior paper air filter, new air intake for the
traction motor
A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric or hydrogen vehicles, elevators or electric multiple unit.
Traction motors are used in electrically powered rail vehicles ( electric multiple ...
s and four exhaust stacks. Internally they had
Dash 2 solid state electrical equipment.
Original buyers
A total of 54 of these remanufactured locomotives were built from April 1978 to 1981.
The first prototype unit of this model was numbered 8301. To avoid confusion the 8700-series was created to separate the GP11s from the
GP10s. It was intended that 8301 would be renumbered 8700 but that never happened. IC units 8701 through 8726 were built in 1979 while units 8727 through 8750 were built in 1980; the remaining three from 8751 to 8753 were built in early 1981.
Core units for the rebuilds came from IC GP9, a lone IC GP18, MBTA GP9, RDG GP7 and UP GP7, GP9 and GP9B.
In Spring 1979, the Clinchfield Railroad sent six GP7s to Paducah to be rebuilt to GP11s. These units were called
GP16
The EMD GP16 are a series of rebuilt diesel-electric locomotives, a result of a remanufacturing program initiated by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL) in an effort to spare the cost of purchasing new motive power in the late 1970s. This in ...
s by Clinchfield.
Disposition
The majority of Illinois Central's GP11 roster was retired prior to
Canadian National
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States.
CN ...
's purchase of the railroad, though many of these engines can still be seen in service on other
short-line railroads and/or preserved in various locations.
* Illinois Central #8701, the second production GP11 rebuild from the Paducah shops in 1979, is now preserved & sitting on static display outside the passenger station in downtown
Carbondale, Illinois.
* Illinois Central #8733, a former
GP9 rebuilt in 1980, was donated to the
Monticello Railway Museum in Monticello, Illinois, by Canadian National in 2001 where it has since been restored and remains in operational condition.
* Illinois Central #8749, a former EMD GP9 rebuilt in 1980, later went on to other railroads, first SLR 8749, then NREX 8749, SWP 8749, and currently is SWP 2006. Originally built as IC 9314 GP9 in December 1957.
* Illinois Central #8702, built in Paducah shops, now an active locomotive on the Pittsburgh and Ohio Central Railroad.
See also
* List of GM-EMD locomotives
References
External links
GP11 Photographs''Rail Pictures.net''
GP11 Photographs''RR Picture Archives.net''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gp11
Electro-Motive Diesel locomotives
Illinois Central locomotives
B-B locomotives
Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States
Railway locomotives introduced in 1978
Rebuilt locomotives
Standard gauge locomotives of the United States
