Texas & Pacific 2/2/59 Letter on Repainting GP7 diesels to Eagle Colors

Additional information from Tom Stamey on the above letter:  That is a very interesting letter because the GP-7 engines never got eagle styling.  The early GP-9's that came in swamp holly orange and black were repainted.  In fact no other engines got eagle styling.

 

There had been earlier attempts by the MP to change painting on T&P engines.   One day President Volmer showed up in the Ft Worth diesel shop and noticed 2   NW-2s  in full MP paint and lettering and asked what the MP units were doing in Ft Worth.  He was told "those are our engines, St Louis said to paint them that way".  Volmer told the man to  "get those engines back in the shop and paint them orange and black with T&P lettering".

 

Jim Odgen notes: 

From what I understand, since the GP7s lacked dynamic brakes, therewas no sense of urgency in going to the blue and gray colors.   They did have a compatible brake schedule so they could be operated with F7s but the GP9s were considered top tier road units.  The GP7s were very utilitarian and were primarily used on locals, secondary freight, and when a larger switcher than a NW2 or SW7 was needed.   Jim Wise and I determined that at least one GP9 escaped the repaint program and went from the Swamp Holly Orange to solid blue when we were doing the work for Athearn.

 

 

 

By the way, there was a group of SW8s that had the full light package and drop steps for use as road power on branches  (think of the lines from Texarkana to Shreveport and around Bunkie and Church Point, Louisiana) and I wouldn't be surprised that if the TP stayed  autonomous until 1965, we would have seen these in blue and gray along with some very interesting GP35s.