6974b&o

6974b&o Baltimore & Ohio GP30 #6902...
In October of 1962 the Baltimore and Ohio purchased an order of 77 GP30's (#6900-6976). These units were all delivered in the sunburst variation of the all blue scheme. All were painted into the normal B&O all blue scheme in the late 60's and early 70's. None of the sunburst paint schemes made it to the Chessie era that I know of.

The GP30's are unique amongst General Motors designed locomotives in that they have a noticeable buldge above the numberboards. This hump gives the GP30 a very stocky appearance. They are a favorite amongst railroad modelers. My #6902 is a Life-Like Proto 2000 model that came unnumbered. See my Life-Like Proto 2000 GP30 page for information on how to build a GP30 unit.

This order of GP30's had some hard luck. #6912, 6920, 6940, 6946, and 6962 were all wrecked prior to the Chessie Era (1972-1986) and scrapped or sold back to General Motors. #6942 was wrecked and scrapped in 1972, but I am uncertain of exactly when in '72 this happened. #6965 was retired in 1981, so it too didn't make it to the end of the Chessie Era. Some of these GP30's were converted by Chessie to GP30M's. These are noticeable by their slotted battery box additions amongst other things.

After the Chessie Era some of the remaining GP30's were converted to road slugs. They are now basically shells of GP30's. There is no engine in them, and they are used to provide extra traction to the mother unit like Chessie's B&O 138T, 139T, and C&O's 140T-150T slugs.

#6902 became CSX #4107 in the CSX renumbering in 1987 and 1988. In 1989 it got converted to road slug #2265.

Below is a pic of the real #6902.

Below are pics of my finished model.