1520cs-c&o

1520cs-c&o Chessie System C&O GP15T #1520...
In 1981 Chessie bought 25 GP15T's (#1500-1524) and assigned them to the C&O. These units were purchased to replace aging GP7 and GP9s that were in secondary roles throughout the system. The GP15s were intended to be used on lightly traffic lines that were not able to handle the abuse from second generation Geeps like the GP35, GP38, and GP40 series. The GP15 also had a huge gas tank and a very small engine. This meant a low fuel consumption and many hours of time between refuelings. These locomotives were perfect for the job of working away from a maintenance facility for a long period of time.

The GP15T is the only class of Chessie locomotive with the "T" designation. The "T" was to differentiate the 8 cylinder turbocharged engine. GP15's also came in GP15AC and GP15-1, designating other types of engine. Chessie had the GP15T only.

These units also had the low mounted radiator screens. To combat overheating in tunnels designers made the locomotive suck air from the lower part of the body instead of the top. This gave the locomotive clean cool air instead of hot exhaust air that is ventilated up from diesel locomotives. Chessie didn't use them in tunnels, but the added cooling capacity did help lower the fuel consumption even more. Tunnel motors are easy to spot since their grills in the back are on the bottom. See the large black square in the yellow part of the car body (just to the left of "Chessie System"). That is where the air goes in. This also made these engines even more unique in that they were the only ones with the small "Chessie System" logo. Notice the top of the Chess-C does not touch the vermillion (orange) stripe, like all other Chessie paint jobs.

Below is a Dean Heacock pic of the real #1520 in Chessie paint, and what it looks like today riding the rails.

My GP15 is also #1520. To see how I did this project see the Walthers GP15T tips page.

Here is a starting pic.

Here are the finished pics.